Jersey City
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in New Jersey, after Newark, and serves as the county seat of Hudson County.[1] Located between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, Jersey City covers nearly 15 square miles of land at the center of the New York City metropolitan region. With more than 40 languages spoken in more than 52% of homes and, as of 2020, 42.5% of residents born outside the United States, it is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States. Jersey City ranks among the early permanent colonial settlements in North America alongside Jamestown, Plymouth, and New Amsterdam. Today, the city is a center of finance, culture, and transit, balancing a storied past with one of the fastest-growing urban economies on the East Coast.
Early History and Colonial Settlement
Jersey City was originally inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of tribes later called Delaware Indians. Its site was first visited by Henry Hudson in 1609 and later settled by Dutch trappers in 1618, becoming known as Paulus Hook. The territory's formal colonial history began when Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the Hudson River and purchased the land from the Lenape for wampum, cloth, kettles, guns, blankets, and other goods. This grant is dated November 22, 1630, and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City.
Pauw, however, was an absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. Relations with the Lenape deteriorated, in part because of the colonists' mistreatment of the indigenous people, which led to a series of raids, reprisals, and the virtual destruction of their settlement on the west bank. During Kieft's War, approximately eighty Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre at Pavonia on the night of February 25, 1643.
Soon after, Peter Stuyvesant, governor-general of what was called "New Netherlands," was commissioned to establish a settlement beginning with a school and religious congregation, and he also brought about the beginnings of self-government in the area known as Bergen. The first village, located inside a palisaded garrison and established on what is now Bergen Square in 1660, is considered to be the oldest town in what would become the state of New Jersey. The area came under English control in 1664. In 1714, the charter of 1668 was found to be inadequate for the needs of the large community the town had become, and Queen Anne issued a new one, still known as Queen Anne's Charter.
The American Revolution and Early Statehood
With its close proximity to New York City, the original communities of Jersey City were the scene of many stirring events during the War of Independence. In the Battle of Paulus Hook, Major General Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee attacked a British fortification on August 19, 1779. On November 22, 1783, the British evacuated Paulus Hook and sailed home three days before they left New York on Evacuation Day. In 1903, an obelisk was erected at Paulus Hook Park at the intersection of Washington and Grand Streets, the site of the fort, to memorialize the Battle of Paulus Hook.
After the war, Alexander Hamilton and other prominent New Yorkers and New Jerseyans attempted to develop the area that would become historic Downtown Jersey City. They laid out the city squares and streets that still characterize the neighborhood, giving them names after war heroes, which are also seen in Lower Manhattan — Grove, Varick, Mercer, Wayne, Monmouth, and Montgomery, among others.
Jersey City was incorporated in 1838 and annexed Van Vorst Township in 1851. On May 3, 1870, following a special election in 1869 with a majority of county support, Jersey City annexed Bergen City and Hudson City to form "Greater Jersey City," with Greenville Township joining in 1873. The city's official motto, displayed on the city seal and flag, is "Let Jersey Prosper," referencing its 19th-century border dispute with New York City.[2]
Transportation, Industry, and Immigration
Jersey City's emergence as a major transportation center, sharing a communications complex with New York City, began with its dockside facilities — now part of the Port of New York complex — and the completion of railroads and the old Morris Canal in the 1830s. Early in the 1800s, eager developers purchased land along the riverbank, and the waterfront quickly became a transportation hub for ferries and steamboats across the Hudson to and from Manhattan Island. With the arrival of the railroad and the Morris Canal, the town quickly rose as an economic force as manufacturing moved in to take advantage of its accessibility to transportation.
During the 19th century, former slaves reached Jersey City on one of the four routes of the Underground Railroad that led here. Jersey City was the last "station" on the route through New Jersey. For many former slaves and enslaved African Americans, Jersey City became a stop on the Underground Railroad providing access to freedom via New York City, New England, and Canada. Hiding in wagons, families and individuals were transported to the banks of the Hudson to embark on a journey aboard ferries, fishing, and coal boats.
The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now the PATH system) opened between 1908 and 1913 as New Jersey's first underground rapid transit system. For the first time, Jersey City and the rail terminals at Hoboken, Pavonia, and Exchange Place were directly linked with Midtown and Lower Manhattan under the Hudson River, providing an alternative to transferring to the extensive ferry system.
A pivotal and darker chapter of this era came on July 30, 1916, when spies working for the German Empire set a series of small fires in a munitions depot located on Black Tom Island just off the shores of the city. This resulted in a massive explosion that shattered windows across the entire New York Harbor, killed several locals, and caused millions of dollars in damages. This event, along with the torpedoing of the SS Lusitania the year prior, helped drive the United States into entering World War I in 1917.[3]
Jersey City's advantageous location near Manhattan on the Hudson River made it home to millions of immigrants from Europe, particularly during the World War II era. As an industrial center of the northeast, it attracted workers from around the world in search of a better life in America, becoming a "melting pot of nationalities" in terms of diverse ethnicities, economic status, and religious backgrounds.
Economy and Modern Development
Once a city driven by immigrants working in the shipping and manufacturing industries, Jersey City has transformed into a modern urban community. Old factories have been repurposed and reborn into office buildings and housing units, and abandoned rail yards are now landscaped parks. Redevelopment of the Jersey City waterfront has made the city one of the largest hubs for banking and finance in the United States, leading to the district and city being nicknamed "Wall Street West."
From 1996 to 2011, NJ Transit constructed the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail as one of the largest public works projects in state history. The system was developed and extended throughout the city and its Downtown, utilizing the former right-of-ways of the railroads that defined the city and county during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Since 1988, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has mandated by law that developers building along the waterfront in Hudson County preserve and develop the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway to provide the public with access and recreation by creating a linear park along the Hudson River. The walkway through Jersey City runs substantially from Hoboken Terminal through Liberty State Park to Port Liberté.
The first graphite pencils ever found a home in Jersey City when Joseph Dixon built Dixon Mills downtown in 1847, producing up to 86,000 pencils a day. The city's industrial legacy also includes a wide variety of manufactures. The city's diversified manufactures have included chemicals, containers, electrical equipment, cosmetics, plastics, furniture, candy, pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, and paper products.[4]
Culture, Education, and Landmarks
Jersey City is home to several institutions of higher education, including New Jersey City University, Saint Peter's University, and Hudson County Community College. The city's cultural landscape is equally diverse. Cultural venues throughout the city include the Loew's Jersey Theatre, White Eagle Hall, the Liberty Science Center, Ellis Island, Mana Contemporary, and the Museum of Jersey City History. In 2021, the restored Van Wagenen House was re-opened as the Museum of Jersey City History.[5]
Liberty State Park is a breath of fresh air on New York Bay amid the city's hustle and bustle. At the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial, a corridor of stainless steel focuses on the space where the Twin Towers once stood and honors those New Jerseyans lost in the attacks. The Liberty Science Center features 12 galleries and hundreds of exhibits, as well as an IMAX dome theater considered the USA's largest.[6]
Large parks in Jersey City include Liberty State Park, Lincoln Park, and Berry Lane Park. Jersey City is also home to the first-ever skyway highway, the Pulaski Skyway. Jersey City is home to WFMU, the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States.[7]
Jersey City's official motto, displayed on the city seal and flag, is "Let Jersey Prosper," referencing its 19th-century border dispute with New York City. The contemporary flag of the city is a variation on the Prince's Flag from the Netherlands. The stripes are blue, white, and yellow, with the center of the flag showing the city seal, depicting Hudson's ship, the Half Moon, and other modern vessels.
Population and Demographics
As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 292,449, an increase of 44,852 (+18.1%) from the 2010 census population of 247,597. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 302,284 for 2024. The third most-populous city in the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City is bounded on the east by the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay and on the west by the Hackensack River and Newark Bay.
Since the 1990s, Jersey City has been a destination for artists and those seeking a vibrant urban alternative to Manhattan. The city's extraordinary ethnic composition is one of its defining characteristics: while roughly 30 percent of New Jersey residents speak a language other than English at home, over 50 percent of those in Jersey City do. This diversity continues to draw international attention, and today the area is an eclectic urban destination with a revitalized feel, an international population second in size only to New York City, and lots of green space.[8][9]