About New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. The state is named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel.

New Jersey ranks ninth in the nation in population and has the highest population density of any U.S. state, because of its proximity to both New York City and Philadelphia but also indicative of its economic importance. New Jersey is a major industrial center, an important transportation corridor, and because of its long coast line, a long-established destination for summer vacationers.

New Jersey consists of 127 miles of white sand beach, scenic mountains and parkland, colonial villages, cutting-edge technology, outstanding education, great cultural attractions, world-class entertainment and stringently protected ecological resources. Home to some of America’s greatest inventors, writers and statesmen, New Jersey is a place where you can walk in George Washington’s footsteps while creating new pathways of your own ­­ in work, family life and leisure. New Jersey has been dubbed “America the beautiful… only smaller,” which is just one of the reasons we know you’ll feel at home here.

Inhabited by Native Americans for more than 11,000 years, the first European settlements in the area were the Swedes and Dutch in the early 1600s. The British later seized control of the region, which was granted to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton as the colony of New Jersey. New Jersey was an important site during the American Revolutionary War; several decisive battles were fought there. The winter quarters of the revolutionary army were established twice by George Washington in Morristown, which was called the military capital of the revolution. The New Jersey Journal, a newspaper published by Shepard Kollock, who established his press in Chatham during 1779, became a catalyst in the revolution. News of events came directly to Kollock from Washington’s headquarters in nearby Morristown, which he published to boost the morale of the troops and their families, and he conducted lively debates about the efforts for independence with those who opposed and supported the cause he championed. Later, working-class cities such as Paterson helped to drive the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. New Jersey’s position at the center of the BosWash megalopolis, between Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., fueled its rapid growth through the suburban boom of the 1950s and beyond.

New Jersey has a temperate climate, with warm/hot humid summers and cool/cold winters. During the hurricane season, tropical cyclones can hit New Jersey, though it is uncommon for it to remain at hurricane strength this far to the north. During the winter months, Nor’easters can dump up to two feet of snow at once. The temperatures vary greatly from the northernmost part of New Jersey to the southernmost part of New Jersey.

The Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is one of the world’s largest container ports although its imports are being threatened by the relatively low Bayonne Bridge. Newark Liberty International Airport is ranked seventh among the nation’s busiest airports and among the top 20 busiest airports in the world.

Its agricultural outputs are nursery stock, horses, vegetables, fruits and nuts, seafood, and dairy products. In particular, cranberries and eggplant are two of the state’s largest crops. Hammonton in the southern part of the state is known as the blueberry capital of the world. Its industrial outputs are pharmaceutical and chemical products, food processing, electric equipment, printing and publishing, and tourism. New Jersey’s economy has a large base of industry and chemical manufacturing. Additionally, New Jersey is home to the largest petroleum containment system outside of the Middle East.

New Jersey hosts several business headquarters. Fifty Fortune 500 companies have headquarters in or conduct business from Morris County alone. New Jersey is said to have the largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the world: nearly one hundred companies on the Fortune 500 list have headquarters or conduct business from New Jersey. Paramus is noted for having one of the highest retail sales per person ratios in the nation.

New Jersey is infamous for its abundance of oil refineries. The smell given off by the refineries is common to motorists who travel the New Jersey Turnpike which runs through the central industrial corridor of the state. New Jersey also is home to major pharmaceutical firms Merck, Wyeth, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Hoffman-LaRoche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Schering-Plough. It draws upon its large and well-educated labor pool which also supports the myriad of industries that exist today.

Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson is one of the largest theme parks in the world. It is home to the largest wild safari outside Africa and is now home to the world’s tallest, fastest rollercoaster, Kingda Ka. As of 2001, New Jersey makes $30 billion each year from tourism, as stated in the Star-Ledger article “The Best of New Jersey”. New Jersey is one of the top ten most visited states in the nation.