New Brunswick, which was built up about the ferry established here in 1697, is situated on the Raritan River and at the eastern end of the Raritan Canal, and enjoys superior facilities for water and railroad transportation. Its most extensive industry is the manufacture of surgical dressings. Other manufactured products are machinery, woolen goods, iron and steel products, automobiles, cigars, and wall paper. Here is situated Rutgers College, which includes the State Agricultural College and Experiment Station. The State Home for Boys is located at Jamesburg. Keyport, with its fisheries and growing manufacturing industries, is situated on lower New York Bay and has rail and water connections with that city. Freehold is always associated with the battle of Monmouth. It has important canning and rug-making industries.
Trenton and the Towns of the Upper Delaware Valley.—Trenton, the capital of the state since 1790, was settled about 1679. Here occurred the Battle of Trenton, which is commemorated by an imposing monument. It is situated on the Delaware at the head of navigation. The Delaware and Raritan Canal passes through the city. It thus has the advantage of transportation by water and railway. The water power developed by the Falls of the Delaware encouraged the establishment and growth of the city's industries, but these have grown so extensive that they do not rely upon it. In the neighborhood of Trenton are deposits of clay which were the basis of the pottery industry. It has forty-eight potteries and in this industry it is rivaled by only one city in the United States. The local clay is now used very little. The better grades of pottery require the finer clays which are obtained from England, France, and some states of this country. It manufactures more sanitary earthenware than any other city in the country. Other extensive industries are automobile factories, iron and steel works, machine shops, foundries, rubber works, woolen mills, watch factories, and oilcloth and linoleum factories.
The state and city acting together have created a large public park which extends along the Delaware River and includes the grounds around the state capitol. The trade of the surrounding country makes the city a thriving business center.
Northeast of Trenton is Princeton, memorable as the scene of the Battle of Princeton and rich in historic associations. Here is located Princeton University, founded in 1746.
Lambertville, on the Delaware northeast of Trenton, is a prosperous town with considerable water power, whose principal industries are rock quarries, rubber works, and canning factories. Pennington and Hopewell in the interior are industrious canning centers. At Phillipsburg, on the Delaware, opposite the mouth of the Lehigh, five railroads meet. It is the western terminus of the Morris Canal. These transportation facilities make it a strongly industrial town. Its principal products are air compressors and rock drills, horseshoes, canisters, iron pipe, boilers, and silks. The principal cement works of the state are located near Phillipsburg. Belvidere, on the Delaware above Phillipsburg; Washington, Hackettstown, and Blairstown, in the interior, are popular residential towns. In Washington pianos and organs, and in Hackettstown saws and leather, are the chief industrial products. In Hackettstown and Blairstown well-known educational institutions are located. Newton is located in the picturesque mountain region of Sussex County. Here dairy farming is important. Its chief manufactures are shoes, silks, and dyeing.
Flemington and High Bridge, in Hunterdon County, though not located in the Delaware Valley, are near it. They are important centers of trade in agricultural sections with growing industries. High Bridge is in the heart of the peach-growing section and has large steel works. So also Franklin Furnace, in Sussex County, is in the Wallkill Valley and is the center of the zinc-mining industry.
Camden and Neighboring Cities and Towns.—In this group are included the towns which are located in the southwestern part of the state and which are usually considered as belonging to the Metropolitan District of Philadelphia or are near it. All are vitally affected by its stimulating commercial and industrial impulse.
Canning factory, filling and capping cans, Camden
The largest city of this group is Camden, on the Delaware opposite Philadelphia, founded about 1680 and known in colonial days as Cooper's Ferry. It shares with Philadelphia the advantages of the deep-water route to the ocean through the Delaware River and Bay. It owes Its first industrial impulse to the opening of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. From It many railroads radiate to all parts of the state and one crosses the Delaware to Pennsylvania. Direct communication with Philadelphia is maintained by ferries. More rapid communication will soon be obtained when the proposed tunnels under the Delaware are completed. Its industries, which are of the most varied character, have increased with astonishing rapidity. The most extensive are the manufacture of talking machines and shipbuilding. Here the largest battleships and merchant vessels can be built. One of the shipbuilding plants is the largest in the country. Other extensive industries are foundries, machine shops, woolen mills, chemical works, factories for the manufacture of cigars, paints, candies, leather, licorice, linoleum, writing pens, and the preparation of soups.