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| State nickname: The Garden State | |||||
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Other U.S. States | |||||
| Capital | Trenton | ||||
| Largest City | Newark | ||||
| Area - Total - Land - Water - % water |
Ranked 47th 22,608 km² 19,231 km² 3,378 km² 15% | ||||
| Population
- Total (2000) - Density |
Ranked 9th
8,414,350 372/km² | ||||
| Admittance into Union
- Order - Date | 3rd December 18, 1787 | ||||
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | ||||
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Latitude Longitude |
38°55'N to 41°21'23"N 73°53'39"W to 75°35'W | ||||
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Width Length Elevation -Highest -Mean -Lowest |
110 km 240 km 550 meters 75 meters 0 meters | ||||
| ISO 3166-2: | US-NJ | ||||
New Jersey is a state of the United States and its U.S. postal abbreviation is NJ. New Jersey was named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel.
USS New Jersey was named in honor of this state.
| Table of contents |
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2 Law and Government 3 Geography 4 Economy 5 Demographics 6 Transportation 7 Important Cities and Towns 8 Education 9 Professional Sports Teams 10 External Links |
Originally inhabited by tribes of the Lenape, New Jersey became a colony of Britain on March 12, 1664. King Charles II of England gave his brother, the Duke of York (later James II of England) the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony (as opposed to a royal colony). James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had been loyal through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and John, Lord Berkeley.
Settlement for the first ten years of English rule was in the Hudson River region and came primarily from New England. On March 18, 1673 Berkeley sold his half of New Jersey to Quakers in England (with William Penn acting as trustee for a time) who settled the Delaware Valley region as a Quaker colony. New Jersey was governed as two distinct provinces, West Jersey and East Jersey, for the 28 years between 1674 and 1702. In 1702 the two provinces were united under a royal, rather than a proprietary, governor.
New Jersey was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. On November 20, 1789 the state became the first in the newly-formed Union to ratify the Bill of Rights. Ironically, on February 15, 1804 New Jersey became the last northern state to abolish slavery.
New Jersey is bordered on the north and northeast by New York, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania (the latter two across the Delaware River.) Among its geographical features:
New Jersey's 1999 total state gross product was $332 billion, placing it 8th in the nation. Its 2000 Per Capita Personal Income was $36,983, 3rd in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are nursery stock, horses, vegetables, fruits and nuts, seafood, and dairy products. Its industrial outputs are pharmaceutical and chemical products, food processing, electric equipment, printing and publishing, and tourism.
As of the 2000 census, the population of New Jersey is 8,414,350. Its population grew 8.6% (666,600) from its 1990 levels. According to the 2000 census,
72.6% (6,104,705) identified themselves as White,
13.6% (1,141,821) as black,
13.3% (1,117,191) as Hispanic or Latino,
5.7% (480,276) as Asian,
0.2% (19,492) as American Indian or Alaska Native,
0.04% (3,329) as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
5.4% (450,972) as other, and
2.5% (213,755) identified themselves as belonging to two or more races.
6.7% of its population were reported as under 5, 24.8% under 18, and 13.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.5% of the population.
New Jersey is also noted for being the most densely populated state in the nation and the wealthiest state in the nation, with a median income of $55,146 a year, according to the 2000 census.
The Garden State Parkway carries more in-state traffic, and runs from Montvale in Northern New Jersey ("North Jersey") to the southernmost tip of the state at Cape May. It is somewhat true that New Jersey residents locate their hometowns according to their exits on the Parkway or the Turnpike, whichever is closer.
The New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) operates extensive rail and bus service throughout the state. NJ Transit is a state-run corporation that began with the consolidation of several private bus companies in North Jersey. In the early 1980s, it acquired the commuter train operations of CONRAIL that connect towns in northern and central New Jersey to New York City. In 1989, NJ Transit began service between Atlantic City and Lindenwold, extending it to Philadelphia in the 1990s.
Also See: List of New Jersey State Highways
Major cities include:
History
Law and Government
See: List of Governors of New Jersey; New Jersey Legislature
The capital of New Jersey is Trenton. The governor of New Jersey is James E. McGreevey and its two U.S. senators are Frank R. Lautenberg (Democrat) and Jon Corzine (Democrat).
Geography
See: List of New Jersey countiesEconomy
Demographics
Transportation
The New Jersey Turnpike is one of the best-known (and most-maligned) roadways in New Jersey. This toll road carries interstate traffic between Delaware and New York. The turnpike is also known for its numerous rest-areas named after prominent New Jerseyites as varied as inventor Thomas Edison; United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; U.S. President Grover Cleveland; writers James Fenimore Cooper, Joyce Kilmer, and Walt Whitman; apocryphal patriot Molly Pitcher; Red Cross advocate Clara Barton, and football coach Vince Lombardi. Important Cities and Towns
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