Fifty states of USA

New Jersey gave the world both football and baseball, as well as Thomas Nast's Democratic donkey, the Republican elephant, and Santa Claus. It was the home to at least three of the most important inventors in American history.

It was here that Thomas A. Edison invented the electric light bulb, Samuel F. B. Morse the electric telegraph, and John P. Holland the submarine.

Washington's famed crossing of the Delaware brought his forces to the Jersey shore. The state became the "pathway of the Revolution" and suffered through four major battles. New Jersey leads the nation in many areas of manufacture and science and has long proven it is more than a convenient route from North to South. Here is the brif history of the state:

Claims greatest variety of manufactured products.

Major glass manufacturing center.

Leader in flag manufacture.

Chemistry industry leader.

The national jewelry center-Newark.

World's first four-lane highway, constructed between Elizabeth and Newark.

First U.S. charter for a railroad.Explorers John Cabot in 1497 and Giovanni de Verrizano in 1524 sailed past what is now the Jersey shore.

The first record of a European on New Jersey soil belongs to Henry Hudson, in 1609.

By 1618 the Dutch had set up a trading post at Bergen.

New Sweden was organized on the lower Delaware in 1638.

Federal Writers' Project, New Jersey

Johan Printz ("Big Tub"), a 7-foot giant of 400 pounds, took control of the Swedish settlement in 1643.

In 1664, England took over the colony and the city of Elizabeth was founded.

New Jersey became a crown colony in 1702, under the governor of New York.

In 1738, New Jersey got its own government.

William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, became governor in 1763.

Dissatisfaction with the crown led to the little-known New Jersey "tea party" on December 22, 1774.

After the Declaration of Independence, a provincial Congress took control and arrested Governor Franklin.

After the Revolution reached New Jersey, the state endured four major battles and 90 minor skirmishes, becoming known as the .pathway of the Revolution."

General George Washington and his armies crossed and re-crossed New Jersey flour times.

Washington made his famed crossing of the Delaware River to the Jersey shore, and his victory at the Battle of Trenton at Christmas time, 1776, gave hope to the American cause.

By the close of the Revolution, 17,000 New Jersey men had fought for the new country, and New Jersey became known as the Garden State for supplying war provisions.