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NEW JERSEY

STATE FACTS

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PE

STATE BIRD

Delaware
Water Gap

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the garden state

Eastern Goldfinch

CAPITAL
Trenton

POPULATION
8,414,350 (2000)

STATEHOOD
December 18, 1787
Rank: 3rd

LARGEST CITIES
Newark (273,546)
Jersey City (240,055)
Paterson (149,222)

LAND AREA
7,417 sq. mi.
(19,210 sq. km.)

De

are

Red Oak

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STATE TREE

COLONISTS SNEAK ATTACK

The victory of colonial troops at the American
Revolution Battle of Trenton in 1776 was due in part to
a sneak attack. General George Washington led his men
across the icy Delaware River on Christmas Day and
caught the Hessian forcesGerman
soldiers serving in the British
armyby surprise. Many battles
of the American Revolution
were fought in New Jersey:
it became known as the
cockpit of the revolution.

De

Purple Violet

DELAWARE

STATE FLOWER

l aw

are

Ri

ve

iovanni da Verrazano was the first European to explore New Jerseys

coast in 1524. It was Henry Hudsons 1609 explorations, however,
r
and especially the accounts of Dutch explorer Cornelius Meys 1614
expedition, that encouraged the Netherlands to found the regions first
Phillipsburg
settlement by white people in Pavonia (part of present-day Jersey City).
Before the Dutch arrived in the 1630s, as many as 8,000 American Indians,
mostly Leni-Lenape, whom the Europeans called the Delaware, lived there.
The British won control of New Jersey in 1664.The colonys location
between New York City and Philadelphia made it a
frequent battleground during the American
NEW
DID YOU KNOW?
Revolution. Almost 100 battles were fought in New
The first drive-in movie theater
opened on June 6, 1933 in
Jersey, including the 1776 Battle of Trenton, an
Camden, New Jersey. Movie
important victory for the Revolutionary forces.
TRENTON
lovers came in droves to watch
films on the 40 by 50 foot (12
In the early 1900s, New Jersey became a huge
A 
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by 15 m) outdoor screen.
A
center of industry and invention.Thomas Alva Edison
V
YL
S
opened a lab in Menlo Park, which became the site
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of many of his most famous inventions. Around the same time,
P E Mount Holly
Philadelphia
the Johnson brothers opened Johnson & Johnson, now an
Camden
international pharmaceutical company with headquarters in
Cherry Hill
New Brunswick.Today, state income also gets a big boost
r
e
v
Lindenwold
from the cultivation of plants and produce.
Ri
One of New Jerseys most visited features
Pitman
is its 130-mile (209 km) shore along the
Pennsville
Atlantic.The shore is lined with long, narrow
islands called barrier islands that were formed over
Vineland
thousands of years by rivers washing sand and
silt into the ocean.
Bridgeton
Millville
WIZARD OF MENLO PARK
Inventor Thomas Edison opened
a laboratory in Menlo Park in
1876. During the next 10 years, he
improved upon the telephone and
invented the first electric lightbulb,
movie projector, and camera. Of
Edisons 1,093 inventions, 400 were
developed in his Menlo Park lab.

24
(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.

Port Norris
Delaware
Bay
North Wildwood
Cape May

NEW YORK
H u d s o n R iv e r

Ringwood

Paterson

Hackensack

Jersey City
Newark
Thomas Edison
Memorial Tower
Edison and Museum

JERSEY
Middletown

FOR THEIR AMUSEMENT

The Jersey Shores 130-mile (209 km) coastline contains everything
from the casinos of Atlantic City to historic Cape May
with its brightly colored Victorian houses as well as pristine beaches.
The town of Wildwoods boardwalk (pictured above) features the
tallest Ferris wheel in the East and one of only four suspended
looping roller coasters in the world.The city of Wildwood is located
on Wildwoods Five Mile Island.

Freehold
Neptune

PRODUCE AND PLANTS

Less than one percent of the states population works on farms, but
New Jerseys 8,700 farms provide food for millions of people.The
state ranks among the top in production of blueberries,
cranberries, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, and peaches. In
the northeast, nurseries and greenhouses grow
flowers and shrubs, most of which are sold in New
York City flower shops. After greenhouse products and
nursery plants, the states biggest farm product is milk.
The fertile soils of the northwestern part of the state make
it ideal for dairy farms.

OCE

AN

Point Pleasant

JOHNSON &
JOHNSON
Johnson & Johnson
opened its headquarters in New Brunswick in
1885.Today, it is the worlds largest pharmaceutical
corporation with 197 companies that sell surgical
supplies, medicine, and their most famous product,
Band-Aid adhesive bandages, which were invented
by an employee in 1921.

AT
L

AN

T IC

Pine
Barrens

Atlantic City

LARGEST EASTERN RECREATION SITE

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a
70,000-acre (112,651 hectare) park that stretches through
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It consists of a canyon
carved by the waters of the Delaware River. Each year
three million visitors come to the parkthe largest
recreation area in the Eastto climb Mount Tammany,
explore the late-nineteenth-century re-created community
of Millbrook Village, walk along the parks 25 miles (40
km) of the Appalachian Trail, or simply relax in its
picnic areas or beaches.

OL BLUE EYES
FRANK SINATRA

oboken-born Francis Albert

Sinatra worked at a local
newspaper before launching a singing
career. In the late 1930s and early
1940s, he sang with Henry James and
Tommy Dorseys big bands. Sinatra
continued recording and entertaining
live audiences on his own, even after
his retirement in 1971. His biggest
hits, including My Way and New
York New York, have become
classics. Sinatra also made 58 films and
won an academy award in 1953 for
his role in From Here to Eternity.

Sinatras career spanned 70 years.

25
(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.