Jersey City

Jersey City, after Newark the second city of New Jersey, and capital of Hudson county, is on the west bank of the Hudson River, opposite New York, of which it is, though in another state, an extension, and with which and Brooklyn it is connected by steam ferries; a tunnel was being made in 1874-95; and a bridge was sanctioned in 1894. It stands on a peninsula bounded on the west by the Hackensack River and Newark Bay; on the south-east it extends along New York Bay. Jersey City is a busy but not a beautiful city. It is the terminus of six great and as many local railways, and is connected with Easton, Pennsylvania, by canal; and at its wharves many ocean-steamers receive and discharge their freight. It is thus the entrepôt of a large trade, especially in iron, coal, and agricultural produce. Its own manufactures are on a large scale, and include sugar, flour, iron and steel, zinc, boilers and machinery, locomotives, oils and chemicals, oakum, lumber, silk, watches and jewellery, lead-pencils, tobacco, pottery, soap, beer, &c. The city has large abattoirs and stock- yards, and grain-elevators notable both for their size and efficiency. The site of Jersey City was formerly called Paulus Hoeck (Hook); the town received its present name and became a municipality in 1838. Pop. (1860) 29,226; (1870) 82,546; (1890) 163,003.