Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Gateway Region

The Gateway Region is a marketing area of the State of New Jersey located in the Northern and Central part of the state. It is one of six marketing areas established by the New Jersey State Department of Tourism, the others being the Greater Atlantic City Region, the Southern Shore Region, the Delaware River Region, the Shore Region and the Skylands Region.. The area encompasses Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties. It is the most urban part of the state and home to most of its larger cities, with population of more than four million, though most housing was originally developed as suburbs. It is home to Ellis Island, the "gateway" through which many immigrants entered the United States, many of whom choose to stay in the region, which continues to be the port of entry and first home to many born abroad, making it one of the most ethnically diverse of the nation. It may also be the most economically diverse, with some of the biggest pockets of poverty and most exclusive of suburbs in the state. The designation has not caught on in local parlance, as the topography and social identity of the residents tend not to correspond to the collective name, though the term North Jersey is often heard.

Geography

The Gateway Region is home to New Jersey's six largest municipalities: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Woodbridge Township, and Edison. Major rivers and the bays they flow into are the Hudson River/Upper New York Bay, the Hackensack River and the Passaic River/Newark Bay, and the Raritan. The topography of the area is quite varied, with the Palisades and the Meadowlands in the northeast, the hills and valleys of the Watchung Mountains in the west, the Ramapo Mountains in the north, and tidal plains of the Raritan to the south. The confluence of roads and railways of the BosWash megalopolis and Northeast Corridor make the region very heavily travelled. Though there are broad distinctions between cities, suburbs, heavy industry, light manufacturing, recreational "green spaces", nature preserves, and retail, transportation, and maritime infrastructure, the landscape is characterized by their close proximity to each other, as is typical of urban sprawl.

History

The Lenape and The Netherlands

The Gateway Region was originally the territory of the Lenape Native Americans. Later called Delaware Indian, this collection of Algonquian-language speaking peoples is believed to have lived for more than 2,800 years on lands around and in-between the Hudson River and the Delaware River. The Lenape are recalled in the countless number of place names given by them to towns, hills, and bodies of water. Much of the land was "purchased" by Dutch and English from the Lenape, though the this concept of "ownership" was foreign to them. The Lenape retreated to the west as settlements grew, and "agreed" to re-locate in 1766 with the Treaty of Easton.

The first recorded European to explore the area was Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who, in 1609, anchoring his ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) at Sandy Hook, Harsimus, Weehawken Cove, and other spots established a Dutch claim. In June of 1623 the territory, called New Netherlands became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Settlement was sparse, and it was not until 1660, after series of confrontations with the Lenape, that the first permanent garrison/village was established on the west bank of the North River at Bergen Square. English and Dutch rivalry made the colony a pawn in European empire wars, and when the English entered New York Bay in 1664, a negotiated settlement (which guaranteed religious tolerance and protection of private property) was made to transfer control of the area to the British crown.

Colonial America

Elizabethtown was founded as the capitol and became the first officially English-speaking settlement, named after the wife of the province's proprietor, Sir George Cateret. In 1666, Newark was established by Puritans from Connecticut. By 1675, the region become the proprietary colony of East Jersey (establishing a border with New York State, which was formalized in 1738). It was partitioned into four counties for administrative purposes: Bergen County, Essex County, Middlesex County and Monmouth County. Settlement remained sparse, though some towns were created within farming communities and along rivers and bays. Among them are Hackensack (a Lenape/Dutch village) and Piscataway in 1693, Perth Amboy in 1684, and New Brunswick in 1736 (which later became home to Queens College). During the 18th century, increased migration to the southwest of Newark Bay by English speakers was predominate, while areas to the north and east retained a Dutch orientation. Slavery and indentured service were encourage to populate the area. The third public reading of The Declaration of Independence took place in New Brunswick, but many East Jerseyans became Tories. Several battles of American Revolution took place in the region including those at Connecticut Farms, Bound Brook, Paulus Hook, and Fort Lee.

Invention, Industry and Immigration

In 1791, Alexander Hamilton help found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.), which encouraged the harnessing of the water power of the Great Falls of the Passaic and to secure economic independence from British manufacturers. Paterson, which was founded by the society, became the cradle of the industrial revolution in America, supported in part by the Morris Canal built in the 1820s. A century later Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, made his mark. Many discoveries and inventions, or application or mass production of them, were made in the Gateway Region including the steam engine, the revolver, the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, the rocket engine, and the electric railway. It is the site of the first automobile and first submarine in the United States. It can claim to the birthplace of baseball and the American film industry.

The latter half of the 19th century saw an expolison of the population (German farmers and entrepreneurs and Irish fleeing the famine a large part of the growth), The laying of rail lines which still cross-cross the region, and the development of the shipping industry at the Hudson River waterfront, Newark Bay, and Kill van Kull, making it one of the nation's economic powerhouses. The Bayway Refinery, the nation's northernmost, and one of its largest oil refineries is in Linden, along the corridor with other heavy industry.

The World Wars

Pre-/Post Millennium

Transportation

The Gateway Regions has an extensive network of national highways, state freeways, and toll roads; commuter and long distance trains; an expanding light rail system; local and interstate bus routes; and is home to one of the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area's three major airports. Much of the rail and surface transit systems is operated by New Jersey Transit and is mostly oriented to commuters travelling to downtown Newark, lower and midtown Manhattan, and increasingly, the Hudson Waterfront. Outside of the most "city-like" areas of Greater Newark/Elizabeth, Hudson County, and Greater Paterson, the automobile remains the most common means of intra-regional travel.

Rail

Air Train: monorail system connecting Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) with Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains
Amtrak: Northeast Corridor stations at Newark Penn Station (NWK), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), and Metropark
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) serving Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, and North Hudson at the Weehawken waterfront, Bergenline (Union City/West New York) and Tonnele Ave (North Bergen)
Newark City Subway/Newark Light Rail: serving downtown Newark, North Newark, Belleville, and Bloomfield
New Jersey Transit Hoboken Division: Main Line (to Suffern, and in partnership with MTA/Metro-North, express service to Port Jervis), Bergen County Line, and jointly with MTA/Metro-North, Pascack Valley Line (limited AM inbound and PM outbound service), all via Secaucus Junction; Montclair-Boonton Line and Morris and Essex Lines (with some service via Secaucus Junction as Midtown Direct); North Jersey Coast Line (limited service as Waterfront Connection); Raritan Valley Line (limited service)
New Jersey Transit Newark Division: Northeast Corridor Line, North Jersey Coast Line, Raritan Valley Line
PATH: 24-hour subway system serving Newark Penn Station (NWK), Journal Square (JSQ), downtown Jersey City, Hoboken Terminal (HOB), midtown Manhattan (33rd) (along 6th Ave to Herald Square/Pennsylvania Station), and World Trade Center (WTC)
THE Tunnel

Air

Commercial scheduled passenger service:

Newark Liberty Airport (EWR), New Jersey's largest airport
LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in Flushing, Queens
John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) on Jamaica Bay in Queens

General aviation:

Essex County Airport
Greenwood Lake Airport, Passaic County
Linden Airport
Teterboro Airport, Hackensack Meadowlands

Seaplane

Hubs

(Interstate) Crossings

Bayonne Bridge to Staten Island
Goethals Bridge in Elizabeth to Staten Island, Interstate 278, Staten Island Expressway
Holland Tunnel in Jersey City to Lower Manhattan, Interstate 78, U.S. Route 1/9
Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawken to Midtown Manhattan, NJ 495, Route 3
George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee to Upper Manhattan, Palisades Interstate Parkway, U.S. Route 46, Interstate 95, Interstate 80
Outerbridge Crossing, from Perth Amboy to Staten Island

(Major) Highways

Garden State Parkway
Interstate 78/278
Interstate 80/280
New Jersey Turnpike/Interstate 95/New Jersey Route 495 (formerly an interstate highway)
Palisades Parkway
Pulaski Skyway

Water

NY Waterway operates ferry service, from Jersey City, Hoboken, and Weehawken to World Financial Center and Pier 11/Wall Street in lower Manhattan, and to West 39th in midtown Manhattan, where free transfer is available to a variety of "loop" buses.
Circle Line Downtown operates ferries the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from Liberty State Park
Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne is one of three passenger terminals in New York Harbor.

Seaports

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates The Auto Marine Terminal in Bayonne and Jersey City and the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, which was the first in the nation to containerize,

Media

Newspapers

Many places have local newspapers specific to their towns, while others have a broader readership and are commonly available in retail shops and for delivery.

Television

The Gateway is part of the Greater New York City market, with some stations located in and broadcasting from it.VHF stations (analog)

Channel 9: WWOR-TV - (My Network TV) - Secaucus (New York City)
Channel 13: WNET - (PBS) - Newark (New York City)VHF stations (digital)
Channel 8: WNJB - (PBS) - New Brunswick - "N.J. Public Television"UHF stations (analog)
Channel 22: WMBQ-CA - (MTV2) - Cranford
Channel 34: WPXO-LP (low power) - (i) - East Orange
Channel 39: WDVB-CA - (The Pentagon Channel) - Edison
Channel 41: WXTV - (Univision) - Paterson (New York City)
Channel 47: WNJU - (Telemundo) - Linden
Channel 50: WNJN - (PBS) - Montclair - "N.J. Public Television"
Channel 58: WNJB - (PBS) - Newark - "N.J. Public Television"
Channel 68: WFUT-TV - (Telefutura) - Newark (New York City)UHF stations (digital)
Channel 40: WXTV - (Univision) - Paterson (New York City)
Channel 53: WFUT-TV - (Telefutura) - Newark (New York City)
Channel 61: WNET - (PBS) - Newark (New York City)