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NEW
JERSEY:
The long, skinny
state of NEW JERSEY, squashed
between Philadelphia and New York on the
Atlantic coast, suffers a severe image
problem. Most travelers only see “the
Garden State” (so called for the rich
market garden territory at the state’s
heart) from the stupendously ugly New
Jersey Turnpike toll road, which, heavy
with truck traffic, cuts through a
landscape of gray smokestacks and
industrial estates. Even the songs of
Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park’s
golden boy, paint his home state as a
gritty urban wasteland of empty
lots, gray highways, lost dreams and
blue-collar tragedy. In reality, the
majority of the refineries and factories
hug a mere fifteen-mile-wide swath along
the turnpike, but bleak cities like
Newark, home to the major airport, and
Trenton, the capital, do little to
improve the look of the place.
The
Dutch, who had snatched New Jersey from
the peaceful Lenni Lenape Indians, turned
the land over to the English in the 1660s.
During the Revolution a battle was
fought at Princeton, and George
Washington spent two bleak winters at
Morristown. When the Civil War
came, the state’s obvious industrial
future ensured that, despite its border
location along the Mason–Dixon line, it
fought with the Union.
There’s
more to New Jersey than factories and
pollution. Both Thomas Paine and Walt
Whitman wrote of their years here with
fond nostalgia; the northwest corner
near the Delaware Water Gap is
traced with picturesque lakes, streams and
woodlands, while the Atlantic shore
offers many bustling resorts.
Click here to go to New Jersey
web site. |
