Portal:New Jersey

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Introduction

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Northeastern United States. It is a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia and was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes founded the first European settlements in the state. The English later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey after the largest of the Channel Islands, Jersey, and granting it as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

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The General Pulaski Skyway is a series of cantilever truss bridges in the northeast part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway carries four lanes of U.S. Route 1/9 for 3.5 miles (5.6 km) between the far east side of Newark and Tonnelle Circle in Jersey City, passing over Kearny. It is known as a "skyway" because it travels high above the meadows to avoid drawbridges across the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, bridging each at a height of 135 feet (41.1 m). It also crosses over the New Jersey Turnpike, many local roads, and several rail lines. The skyway is named for General Kazimierz Pułaski, the Polish military leader who assisted in training and commanding Continental Army troops in the American Revolutionary War.

Trucks are prohibited from the Pulaski Skyway for the "safety and welfare of the public", due to its outdated design. They must use an alternate route known as U.S. Route 1/9 Truck, a series of local roads through Jersey City, Kearny and Newark that carried traffic before the Skyway was built. Pedestrians and bicycles are also banned, as the road is a freeway with no sidewalks.

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Credit: KForce

The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of the New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City; it is separated from the Hudson River by the New Jersey Palisades.

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New Jersey news

Wikinews New Jersey portal

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Did you know?

... that George Thomas Coker, apart from George McKnight, was the POW to escape from the "Hanoi Hilton"?
... that when the FBI celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2008, Walter Walsh, its oldest living former agent, was one year older than the agency itself?
... that the New Jersey County Colleges is a system of 19 public community colleges with over 60 campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey?

Selected biography

Morris "Moe" Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player, usually used as a backup catcher, and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball" than for anything he accomplished in the game. Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball".

A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke several languages and regularly read 10 newspapers a day. His reputation was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information, Please! in which he answered questions about the derivation of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences.

As a spy working for the government of the United States, Berg traveled to Yugoslavia to gather intelligence on resistance groups the U.S. government was considering supporting. He was then sent on a mission to Italy, where he interviewed various physicists concerning the German nuclear program. After the war, Berg was occasionally employed by the OSS's successor, the Central Intelligence Agency, but, by the mid-1950s, was unemployed. He spent the last two decades of his life without work, living with various siblings.

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