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NJNew Jersey Fun Facts
New Jersey is almost an island. Every edge except a land border of roughly 48 miles with New York is water: the Hudson River, the Atlantic, Delaware Bay and the Delaware River. That nearly closed outline holds the densest population of any state, and it also holds a million acre wilderness that most people driving the Turnpike never see.
Facts most people get wrong
- Garden State is not a joke. New Jersey ranks near the top nationally in cranberries, blueberries and bell peppers. The cultivated highbush blueberry was bred at Whitesbog by Elizabeth Coleman White with USDA botanist Frederick Coville, producing its first commercial crop in 1916.
- Menlo Park is not the one in California. Thomas Edison's laboratory stood at Menlo Park, New Jersey, now part of Edison Township. The phonograph came out of it in 1877 and the first practical incandescent lamp in 1879.
- The self service gas ban is not a dead law. The Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act dates to 1949 and is still enforced. Oregon relaxed its own ban in 2023, which leaves New Jersey as the only state where drivers cannot pump their own fuel.
- The Atlantic City Boardwalk was not built for fun. It opened in 1870 so hotel owners and the railroad would stop having sand tracked into lobbies and rail cars. It was the first boardwalk anywhere, and the property names on the Monopoly board are Atlantic City streets.
- Trenton is not an accidental capital. It served as the capital of the United States for two months in late 1784 and was a serious candidate to become the permanent seat of government.
- New Jersey was not a latecomer to the Union. It ratified the Constitution on December 18, 1787, third of the 13, and it was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, in November 1789.
Records and firsts
- First intercollegiate football game, played in New Brunswick on November 6, 1869. Rutgers beat Princeton 6 to 4 under rules much closer to soccer than to the modern game.
- First drive-in movie theater, opened in Camden on June 6, 1933 by Richard Hollingshead, who worked out the sight lines by parking cars in his own driveway.
- First mechanically ventilated underwater vehicle tunnel. The Holland Tunnel opened in 1927 with a fan system designed specifically to clear car exhaust, a problem no earlier tunnel had solved.
- One of the first towns lit by a central power station, Roselle in 1883, wired by Edison with overhead lines serving homes, a church and street lamps.
- Most densely populated state, at roughly 1,260 people per square mile, a figure no other state approaches.
- Grover Cleveland, born in Caldwell in 1837, is the only president born in New Jersey and the only one to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
Geography that surprises
- Part of the New Jersey riverbank is legally Delaware. The Twelve Mile Circle drawn around New Castle gives Delaware the Delaware River bed all the way to the New Jersey low water line. The Supreme Court reaffirmed the boundary in 2008.
- Cape May sits at about the same latitude as Washington, DC, which is why the southern tip of the state has a longer growing season than the northern ridges.
- High Point reaches 1,803 feet in the far northwest corner, and the Appalachian Trail crosses roughly 72 miles of the state's northern ridgelines.
- About 130 miles of Atlantic coast belong to a state that ranks 47th of 50 in total area.
- The Pinelands cover more than a million acres in the south, the largest open space on the seaboard between Boston and Richmond, sitting on an aquifer holding trillions of gallons of fresh water.
Where the name comes from
The name dates to 1664, when the Duke of York handed the land between the Hudson and the Delaware to John Berkeley and George Carteret. Carteret came from Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy, and had held it for the Crown during the English Civil War, sheltering the future Charles II there when he had nowhere else to go. So New Jersey is named for an island closer to France than to England, not for anywhere on the English mainland. The colony spent its early decades split into East Jersey and West Jersey under separate proprietors before the two halves were reunited under the Crown in 1702.
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Frequently asked questions
What is New Jersey known for?
Being the most densely populated state, the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City, diners, Thomas Edison's laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange, blueberries and cranberries from the Pinelands, and the only remaining statewide ban on pumping your own gas.
What is the weirdest law in New Jersey?
The self service gasoline ban. The Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act of 1949 makes it illegal for drivers to pump their own fuel, and an attendant must do it. Oregon relaxed its version of the rule in 2023, leaving New Jersey the only state with a full ban.
Why is New Jersey called the Garden State?
For its farm output. The state ranks near the top nationally in cranberries, blueberries and bell peppers, and its produce fed New York and Philadelphia markets long before the highways were built. The cultivated highbush blueberry was developed at Whitesbog and first sold commercially in 1916.
Where does the name New Jersey come from?
From Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands off the Normandy coast. Sir George Carteret, who received the land grant in 1664 with John Berkeley, was from Jersey and had defended it for the Crown during the English Civil War.
What was invented in New Jersey?
The phonograph in 1877 and the first practical incandescent lamp in 1879, both at Edison's Menlo Park lab. The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden in 1933, the first boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1870, and the first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1869.