Jersey City, New Jersey

“ There are very few unpaved streets in Jersey City. Grand Street, in the heart of the city, and some of the avenues on the hill section back of the main portion are noteworthy for beautiful residences. ”

“ The average cost of education per pupil has been found to be about $22 annually. There are several convents and a full equipment of asylums, homes, and other charitable institutions.
Jersey City is almost inclosed by water, thus affording excellent docking facilities, which, with its railroad connections, have aided its development as a shipping and receiving point, though officially it has no identity as a separate port, since its returns are included in those of the customs district of New York. It has also large slaughtering and meat-packing interests and extensive manufactures. ”

“ An interesting feature of the city, and one that is a matter for congratulation, adding, as it does, to the historic interest of the town, and is a connecting link between the city of to-day and the early settlers who founded here the first village in New Jersey, is the fact that there are still in the limits of Jersey City quite a number of old houses built upon the Dutch plan, although there are but few dating beyond the present century. The Gautier house, on New York Bay, for some years the home of the Greenville Yacht Club, was built in 1760 by Captain Brown, and called "Retirement Hall." ”

“ Jersey City is served by several inter-urban electric railways and by the tunnels of the Hudson & Manhattan railroad company to Dey St. and to 33rd St. and 6th Ave., New York City, and it also has docks of several lines of Transatlantic and coast steamers. The city occupies a land area of 14.3 sq. m. and has a water-front of about 12 m. Bergen Hill, a southerly extension of the Palisades, extends longitudinally through it from north to south. At the north end this hill rises on the east side precipitously to a height of nearly 200 ft.; on the west and south sides the slope is gradual. ”

“ The Pennsylvania and Erie railroads have large grain-elevators here, and there are plants of the American Sugar Refining Company and the Lorillard Tobacco factories, which rank with the largest. Among the products of the industrial establishments are soaps and perfumes, candles, crucibles, lead pencils, patent iron dump-carts, compressed gas, glass, locomotives, railroad cars, iron and steel, zinc, copper, boilers, planing-mill, foundry and machine-shop products, chemicals, paints, oakum, jewelry, and pottery.
The government of Jersey City is administered by a mayor, chosen every two years ”

“ Located on the southwest corner of Bergen and Sip Avenues, Jersey City, it has a situation that not only gives it the utmost convenience of access from New York and all surrounding suburbs and towns, but that also makes it central to all the business activities of this industrial and commercial New Jersey territory. ”

“ But Jersey City was, after all, a suburb only of New York. Some of my most devoted hearers came from New York, and urged me to go there. Dr. Bellows was anxious to found a third Society in the great city, and added his word to their solicitations, so that in the spring of 1859 I went thither. My church in Jersey City was continued for a short time, but I had no settled successor; the congregation did not grow; some of my most earnest supporters had either died or left the town. The war broke out and was fatal to institutions that had not a deep root. ”

“ Jersey City (206) , the most populous city in New Jersey, is separated from New York, of which it is practically a part, only by the Hudson River; has no pretension to beauty, but is a busy railway centre; has very varied manufactures, including sugar, flour, machinery, and chemicals, extensive shipping interests, and great trade in iron, coal, and agricultural produce.
Jerusalem (41) , the capital of Palestine, holy city of the Jews, belonged originally to the Jebusites, but was captured by David and made his capital; a strong place, built on four hills 2000 ft. ”

“ New Jersey is thickly populated, well provided with railway and water transit, and busily engaged in manufactures—e. g. glass, machinery, silk, sugar. Newark (capital) and Jersey City are by far the largest cities ”

“ American cars run through all the avenues. Any one who has seen one quarter of New York knows the whole of the great city, except, perhaps, that intricacy 169of streets and confused alleys appropriated by the commercial population.
New York is built on a tongue of land, and all its activity is centred on the end of that tongue; on either side extend the Hudson and East River, arms of the sea, in fact, on which ships are seen and ferry-boats ply, connecting the town on the right hand with Brooklyn, and on the left with the shores of New Jersey. ”

“ By the new Charter of "Greater New York" coming into operation in 1897, the city was made, next to London, the largest in the world, being expanded beyond Manhattan Island, so as to include all the outlying cities. It now consists of five boroughs, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, having an area of three hundred and twenty square miles, and a population 24 exceeding three and one-half millions. If Jersey City and the other New Jersey settlements on the west side of the Hudson were added, the population would be four millions. ”

“ Washington Heights is a crowning wilderness looking down upon the city from Fort George, while the Sound and a glimpse of the village beyond seen through the faint blue haze of distance lend a touch of fairylike enchantment. The Jersey shore and the Palisades are one long drawn out joy, so that, turn where you will, you find New York beautiful. ”

“ They are all exceptionally active in providing educational facilities. They are all closely connected with Newark and the city of New York by many railroad and trolley lines. In most of them land is in such demand for residential purposes, that it cannot be used profitably for manufacturing purposes, so that this industry is naturally discouraged. In some of them, however, especially those nearest to Newark, large industrial establishments have grown up. ”

“ At the back is the city, teeming with life, humming with trade, muttering with the thunder of passage. Opposite, in Jersey City, people say: “Every New Yorker has come a good half-hour late into the world, and is trying all his life to make it up.” ”

“ The main part of the city is situated on Manhattan Island, and it is overcrowded, compelling the overplus to seek the suburbs and other near-by localities. Even these are becoming too well populated. Jersey City, Newark, Brooklyn, Paterson, Kearney, Harrison, Staten [Pg 137] Island, Coney Island, etc., are increasing in population all too rapidly. New York is one of the "step lively" towns, and you are expected to hustle there, whether you want to or not. ”

“ The state of New Jersey shall have the exclusive right of property in and to the land under water lying west of the middle of the bay of New York, and west of the middle of that part of the Hudson river which lies between Manhattan island and New Jersey.' 2. New Jersey is to have exclusive jurisdiction over wharves, docks, and improvements made or to be made on its shore, and over vessels aground or fastened there, subject to the quarantine and passenger laws of New York. ”

“ One square from Arch street is Market, designed years ago by the far-sighted Quaker to be just what it is today—a great commercial thoroughfare of one of the metropolitan cities of America. At its feet the ferries cross the Delaware to the fair New Jersey land. Up its course to the City Hall—or as the Philadelphian will always have it, the Public Buildings—are department stores, one of them a commercial monument to the man who made the modern department store possible and so doing became the greatest merchant of his generation. ”

“ Before the white race came to America, the locality now known as Jersey City, was occupied by a branch of the Minsi division of the Lenni Lenape Nation of the Red Men, and was called Sheyichbi. The whole of the present state of New Jersey belonged to the Lenape, and was occupied by bands bearing different names according to the special features of the locality, but all recognizing their unity as one people. ”

“ Hoboken is connected with the city of New York by the Hudson River tunnels and by ferries and with other cities of the state by many trolley lines. Its manufacturing industries include shipbuilding and repairing and the making of lead -xxiii- pencils, surveying and nautical instruments, marine engines and boilers, silk goods, furniture, and wall paper. Here is located the well-known Stevens Institute of Technology.
North of Hoboken and Jersey City are several cities and towns which are very important industrially and are rapidly growing in population. ”

“ These men were eminent and successful lawyers in New York and became the founders of Jersey City. They divided their purchase into one thousand shares, associating others with themselves. A map of the property was issued and a sale of lots was advertised for May 15th, then adjourned to June 12th, 13th and 14th. Upon the 10th of November, 1804, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the "Associates of the Jersey Company." This bill was drawn up by Alexander Hamilton. To this corporate body Radcliff and Dey conveyed Paulus Hook, February 1st, 1805. ”

“ It has many industries, the largest of which, and the largest of its kind in the world, is the manufacture of sewing machines. Other industries are the manufacture of iron and steel products of all kinds, and of electrical appliances, tanning, printing, and shipbuilding. It has always been popular as a place of residence with many whose business is in New York.
Rahway, a few miles southwest of Elizabeth, is a flourishing city whose chief industries are the manufacture of felt, cereals, steel products, clothing, music boxes, and printing and book binding. ”

“ The entire sea-coast is rapidly becoming a continuous line of summer resorts, among which may be enumerated Long Branch, Sea Bright, Spring Lake, and Asbury Park in the northern portion, Atlantic City in the centre, and Cape May in the south. ”

“ It has a climate favorable to those who are convalescing from illness or seek to recuperate their health. On this account it is a popular resort during the entire year. It has a superior school system and all the other facilities and institutions which mark the progressive city. Long Branch, farther north, is the oldest resort on the coast. Another resort of many years standing is Cape May City. Other well-known resorts are Ocean City, Point Pleasant, Sea Girt, Manasquan, Spring Lake, Belmar, Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, Sea Bright, and Atlantic Highlands. ”

“ THE FATE OF SOUTH JERSEY.
The Camden and Atlantic, the Philadelphia and Atlantic City, the New Jersey Southern, and some minor railroads, pass through portions of New Jersey long known as the "Jersey Barrens." They are all new roads, comparatively speaking, but they have wonderfully stimulated the enterprise that has created so many flourishing villages that ten years ago had never been heard of. Vineland, the fairest and most flourishing village in the country, as well as the largest, is only about fifteen years old. Its population is six thousand. ”

“ At that rate New York City would have 480,000,000 of people and its boundaries would take in the whole of the State of New Jersey and nearly half of the entire State of New York, as thickly settled as that city now is. ”

“ These blackened brooks of the Broad Mountain are the headwaters of the Schuylkill River.
THE NEW JERSEY COAST RESORTS.
The Delaware River divides Pennsylvania from New Jersey, and at Camden, opposite Philadelphia, there has grown another large city from the overflow of its population. Ferries, and at the northern end of Philadelphia harbor an elevated railway bridge, cross over to Camden, while for miles the almost level surface of New Jersey has suburban towns and villas, the homes of thousands whose business 192 is in Philadelphia. ”

“ To the west, beyond the Hudson, lies the Jersey shore, covered by Jersey City and Hoboken. To the northeast, over the Harlem, lies the mainland of New York state; and to the southeast is Long Island with Brooklyn. East River, which separates Manhattan from Long Island, is not a river but a strait connecting upper New York Bay with Long Island Sound. It is long and winding, a mile wide at its narrowest point, and contains three large islands — Ward's, Randall's and Blackwell's — that are occupied chiefly by the city's institutions and prisons. ”

“ There was an office and waiting room at the corner of Bay street and Newark avenue, and in Bergen the stages started from the Columbian Hotel, a building now known as Foye Hall, at Foye Place. After a time omnibuses were introduced, and large open sleighs were used in the winter. Peter Merselis sold out to the Jersey City and Bergen Railroad Company which was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of New Jersey approved March 15, 1859. ”

“ Grain is shipped to and from Jersey City in large quantities, and in general the city is an important shipping port; being included, however, in the port of New York, no separate statistics are available. There are large slaughtering establishments, and factories for the refining of sugar and for the manufacture of tobacco goods, soap and perfumery, lead pencils, iron and steel, railway cars, chemicals, rubber goods, silk goods, dressed lumber, and malt liquors. ”

“ Previous to 1829 there were but few manufacturing interests in Jersey City. In that year several factories were established here, and since 1840 they have steadily increased until they are now so extended and varied, that in a sketch of this limited character they can only be lightly touched upon. While many business firms began here, others have removed to this city from other places; notably the Lorillard Tobacco Factory, which, started in New York in 1760, has grown to be the largest of its kind in the country. ”