Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002

NEW JERSEY is the fourth smallest State in the Union; only Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island are smaller. It has an area of 8,224 square miles, of which 710 square miles are water surface. The State has an extreme length north and south of 166 miles, and an extreme width east and west of 57 miles.

With the exception of the 50-mile northern boundary from Hudson River to Delaware River, separating it from New York, the State is entirely surrounded by water, 300 miles of which are navigable. It is bounded west and south by the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, dividing it from Pennsylvania and Delaware. On the east it is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Hudson River, Arthur Kill, Kill van Kull, and New York Bay, which separate it from New York.

The State falls naturally into three physical divisions of sharply differentiated scenery. In the north is the mountainous, lake-studded region known as the Appalachian Highlands; in the central, or Triassic section, are gently rolling hills, supporting most of the State's urban and industrial development; and in the large southern Coastal Plain are fruit orchards and market gardens, swamps and pine wastes, miles of beaches and shallow bays.

The Appalachian Highlands section, which extends northwest of a line that might be drawn through Pompton, Morristown, Lebanon and Clinton to Delaware River, includes slightly less than two-fifths of the State's area. Along the northwest border are the level-topped narrow Kittatinny Mountains, which achieve the highest elevation in the State-x,805 feet above sea level at High Point. These mountains are part of the Appalachians. Bisecting them is the famous Delaware Water Gap, 900 feet wide at the base and 4,500 feet wide at the top, with sides rising to a height of 1,200 feet or more.

The thickly wooded ridges of this area form a natural park. In Sussex County, more than 12,000 acres along the Kittatinny range have been set aside as Stokes State Forest to preserve at least a portion of the State's woodland in its pristine beauty. Winding roads and trails penetrate the dense forest growth, and rock-strewn streams invite the fisherman. Shut in between the Kittatinny Mountains on the west and the Highlands on the southeast is Kittatinny Valley, largest of the many fertile valleys in this section that are used for farming and dairying.

Several parallel ridges, remarkably uniform in height, and some of the oldest rocks in America, form the lesser elevations. Among the best-known are the Green Pond, Schooley, Hopatcong, and Jenny Jump; between them, lakes, swamps, brooks and narrow valleys are frequent. Summer resorts and large country estates are situated throughout this region. To the south lies cleared land used for agriculture. The Highlands do not end at the State line but stretch northeasterly to West Point, where they become the Highlands of the Hudson, and southwestward into Pennsylvania. Elevations in this area average about 800 feet.

Lake Hopatcong, in the south central section of the Appalachian Highlands district, is the largest inland body of water wholly within the State. It has an area of 2,443 acres and a shoreline of more than 40 miles. Greenwood Lake, with 1,290 acres, is divided between New Jersey and New York. Nearby is Wanaque Reservoir, the State's largest artificial lake. Scores of smaller lakes, many of glacial origin, are found in this region. One-fifth of the State, a long strip barely 20 miles wide, the city belt of New Jersey, lies within the Triassic Lowland division, which extends from Delaware River to Hudson River, and north from US 1 (the straight-line highway between Newark and Trenton) to the base of the Ramapo Mountains.

Manufacturing and commerce have centered in this area, with the result that it includes Paterson, Passaic, Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth, New Brunswick and Trenton-every large urban center in the State with the exceptions of Camden and Atlantic City. West and north of Newark is a string of closely built-up residential towns: Maplewood, the Oranges, Bloomfield, Nutley, Clifton, and suburbs of Paterson.

The red soils of the weak Triassic sandstone and shales are not utilized extensively for agricultural development. However, the section running southwest along the Piedmont belt, just above US 1, is one of the oldest farming districts in the State.

Rising abruptly from the sandstone plain generally characteristic of the district are the traprock formations known as the Palisades, Sourland, Watchung, and Cushetunk. They are forested and rise from 400 to 500 feet above sea level. The Palisades, the most important of these, extend as far as Weehawken from a point north of the New York boundary, gradually decreasing in height. The traprock formation continues to the Kill van Kull channel and into the Watchung Mountains west of the group of suburbs known as the Oranges, but south of Weehawken has little scenic appeal.

The State's three principal rivers, the Passaic, Hackensack, and Raritan, all drain this section and are partly navigable. The Passaic, the most important commercially, rises in the southern part of Morris County and runs northeast to Little Falls, where it descends 40 feet by a cascade and rapids. In Paterson the river drops 70 feet into a vertically-walled gorge to form Passaic Falls, a spectacular sight when high water causes an overflow. Usually the river's entire volume is diverted for electricity production. From the falls, the river turns southward and empties into Newark Bay.

The Hackensack enters the State about five miles west of the Hudson, flows parallel with that river and empties into Newark Bay, around which are thousands of acres of marshland. The Raritan, largest river wholly within the State, rises in Morris County, runs eastward and empties into Raritan Bay. It drains an area of 1,105 square miles. Some of the streams provide water power, as may be seen at Paterson, High Bridge, Pottersville, and Raritan. The Coastal Plain division, comprising about 4,400 square miles, or more than half of the State's area, sweeps inland and northward from the ocean up to the general course of US r. One-third of the plain is less than 50 feet above sea level; two-fifths are between So and 10o feet; and one-fourth is 100 feet above sea level. One-eighth of the plain consists of tidal marsh.

Fringed though it is with these tidal marshes and containing many inland swamps, the plain in certain areas is highly productive. The clay beds and greensand marls of the northern section provide good farm land, producing melons, potatoes, corn, and other standard market crops. Westward in Burlington County is one of the most important fruit-growing districts of eastern United States.

The southern and central part of the plain is covered largely with stunted pine woods-the famous pine barrens. Throughout this area are cranberry bogs. The swamp land yields in addition large quantities of sphagnum moss (used by nurserymen for potting) and medicinal herbs. Early settlers quickly discovered the value of the Great Cedar Swamp in Cape May County, on Tuckahoe River. Buried at shallow depths and perfectly preserved were the trunks of giant cedars, which were hauled from the swamp and converted into shingles and other building material.

Beaches and tidal marshes extending from Raritan Bay to Cape May on the Atlantic Ocean, and from the Cape to Camden on Delaware River, almost encircle the area. Sand bars along the coast have always been a hazard to mariners and fishermen. Capped by sand dunes, the bars are slowly becoming part of the mainland because of the accumulation of sediment washed into the basins from the shore. Rivers with swampy banks, the large extent of unproductive land, and a lack of good harbors have generally retarded the development of the Coastal Plain.

From Manasquan south the coast is a succession of shallow inlets, river mouths and long sandy beaches. Barnegat, Little Egg Harbor, and Great Egg Harbor are the most important harbors on the southern coast. The Delaware River is navigable up to Camden.

Principal rivers, none of which runs for more than 36 miles, are the Pequest, Great Egg Harbor, and Maurice. The drainage pattern is dendritic, or treelike. The sole important elevation in this section is the Navesink Highlands on Lower New York Bay, highest point on the open Atlantic Coast between Maine and Florida.

An ocean to the south and mountains in the north account in part for New Jersey's strikingly varied climate. The southern tip of the State, at Cape May, has a uniform summer coolness, but escapes hard winters because it is out of the northern storm path and protected by the nearness of the Gulf Stream. The northern highlands have the coldest winter weather of any section in the State.

The mean temperatures range from 49.2° F. at Dover in the north to 55.4° at Bridgeton in the south. The highest recorded temperature in the State was 109° at Somerville on September 21, 1895. At Riverdale in Bergen County, a record low of 34° below zero was reported on January 5, 1904. Seacoast temperatures have never fallen to more than 10° below zero.

Consistently mild weather has contributed to making Atlantic City an important health and resort city. Its average winter temperature is 34°, while the summer mean is 70°.

Annual rainfall throughout the State averages 48 inches, with less precipitation along the southern shore and slightly more in the northern district. The State escaped the worst of the drought in 1930, receiving 19 inches of its normal 35-inch rainfall in the growing season. Snow falls in the period from November to April. The growing season, between killing frosts of spring and autumn, varies in length from 155 days in the Kittatinny Mountain region to 203 days along the coast.

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