Jersey City is a city in and the county seat of Hudson County, New Jersey. The city, with a population of 270,753 in 2017, was the second-most-populous city in the state after Newark. Jersey City is a part of the New York City metropolitan area, and it is separated from Manhattan by the Hudson River. Jersey City is a port of entry with 30.7 miles of waterfront, and it has extensive rail infrastructure and connectivity, becoming an important transportation terminus and distribution and manufacturing center for the area. Redevelopment of the waterfront has made Jersey City one of the largest banking and finance centers of the United States, earning it the nickname "Wall Street West".
History[]
Early history[]
The area was inhabited by the Lenape before the European arrival, and, in 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson discovered the area. In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage the new territory, and, in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province. The Dutch settler Michael Reyniersz Pauw chose the area around Jersey City and Hoboken to start a settlement on 22 November 1630.
Colonial history[]
In 1633, Pauw sold his land back to the West India Company, which named the area "Pavonia", the Latinized version of Pauw's surname (which means "peacock" in Dutch"). Jan Evertsen Bout was the first superintendent of the colony, and he was succeeded by Cornelius Van Vorst, whose family became influential in the development of the city. From 1643 to 1645, during "Kieft's War", the Dutch settlers went to war with the neighboring Lenape Indians, and eighty Lenapes were killed in a massacre at Pavonia on 25 February 1643. In 1660, a village was built inside of a palisaded garrison on what is now Bergen Square, becoming the oldest village in New Jersey.
The area fell under English control during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and it was the site of the 19 August 1779 "Battle of Paulus Hook" during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, Alexander Hamilton and other prominent New Yorkers and New Jerseyans attempted to develop the area that would become Downtown Jersey City, laying out the city squares and streets that characterize the neighborhood. On 28 January 1820, the "City of Jersey" was incorporated, and it was reincorporated in 1829 and 1838, when it became completely independent from North Bergen and was renamed to "Jersey City". On 22 February 1840, it became part of the newly created Hudson County.
Modern Jersey City[]
After the American Civil War, the public demanded for the towns east of the Hackensack River to be united into one municipality. On 3 May 1870, Hudson City and Bergen City merged into Jersey City, followed by Greenville in 1873. In the late 1880s, passenger railroad terminals opened in Jersey City next to the Hudson River, and tens of millions of immigrants passed through the stations; Jersey City's railroads would remain the city's largest employers into and during the early 20th century. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was also a dock and manufacturing town. In its heyday before World War II, German, Irish, and Italian immigrants found work at the city's factories. From 1917 to 1947, Jersey City was governed by Mayor Frank Hague, who led a Democratic Party machine and lived like a millionaire. The city and county remained notorious for political corruption into the 21st century, and the city experienced urban decline during the 1970s due to white flight, rising crime, civil unrest, political corruption, and economic hardship. During the 1980s, the development of the waterfront sparked a renaissance, and the Exchange Place financial district became one of the largest banking centers in the United States, being nicknamed "Wall Street West". In the 2000s, the Kushner family began to revitalize Downtown Jersey City, and Liberty State Park was built to cover up abandoned rail facilities built on landfills.
Diversity[]
Jersey City also became one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, as it was a major port of entry for immigration to the USA and a major employment center at the core of the New York City metropolitan area. The city developed a cosmopolitan ambiance of its own, and it had demographic and cultural diversity. It had a large Hispanic population (27.4% of its population in 2013), with the majority of Hispanics being Puerto Rican. Indians, who migrated en masse to the region after the 1970s and 1980s, made up 10.9% of the population, the highest concentration of Indian-Americans in any major American city. Filipinos came to make up 7% of the population, with Tagalog being the third-most-common language spoken in Jersey City after English and Spanish. The white population, the original settlers of the area, mostly settled in newer developments in the [Newport, Jersey City|Newport]] and Exchange Place neighbourhoods along the Jersey City waterfront. The African-American population made up almost a quarter of the population, and, although the population of African-Americans declined, the growing Nigerian and Kenyan populations in the city offset the decline of the black population. Jersey City was also home to a large Arab and Muslim population, with Egyptians being the largest Arab group (with Jersey City boasting the largest population of Coptic Christians in the USA), and Moroccans being the second-largest. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis made up the largest non-Arab Muslim groups, and the Muslim population was increased by the conversion of many Latinos to Islam.
In 2017, Jersey City had a population of 270,753 people, with the population roughly being divided into quarters: black, white, Asian, and Hispanic; there were small "other" and interracial minorities.
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