1. A Mid-Atlantic state on the Atlantic; one of the original 13 colonies; Also called: Garden State.
2. One of the British colonies that formed the United States.
State in NE US; nicknamed Garden State
area 20,200 sq km/7,797 sq mi
capital Trenton
towns and cities Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth

features the most densely populated state in the US; c. 200 km/125 mi of Jersey Shore, including gambling casinos, amusement piers, and the boardwalk (the first elevated wooden walkway in US, 1870) in Atlantic City, and the Victorian beach resort of Cape May, the state’s oldest resort; Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area; Palisades along W bank of the Hudson River; Morristown national historic park, commemorating the winters of 1777 and 1779–80 spent there by George Washington and his army; Edison national historic site, Menlo Park; Wharton State Forest, with Batsto state historic site, a restoration of an early 19th-century ironworking and glassmaking community; Walt Whitman House, Camden; Princeton Battle Monument; Princeton University (1746), with the Institute for Advanced Study; Rutgers University; Educational Testing Service; Bell Laboratories; Garden State Arts Center (1968) in Monmouth County; the Meadowlands stadium; Statue of Liberty national monument (shared with New York)
industries fruits and vegetables, fish and shellfish, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, soaps and cleansers, transport equipment, petroleum refining
famous people Stephen Crane, Thomas Edison, Thomas Paine, Paul Robeson, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Woodrow Wilson
history colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch (New Netherlands); ceded to England 1664; became a state 1787. It was one of the original 13 states.
Wedged between the growing cities of Philadelphia and New York, New Jersey saw much fighting during the Revolution and became increasingly urban and industrial in the 19th century. In the 20th century, much of the state remains a farming region but also has experienced much air and water pollution as well as the dumping of toxic wastes in landfills. It remains a favored site for development, however, and ranks near the top among states in per-capita income; much urban renewal has occurred in the industrial port cities along the Hudson since the 1970s.