116 Fun Facts About New Jersey

New Jersey takes its name from a place in which body of water?

The English Channel: the colony was named for Jersey, the Channel Island whose former governor, Sir George Carteret, received the land from the Duke of York in 1664.

What is New Jersey's state capital?

Trenton, on the Delaware River, has been New Jersey's capital since 1790 and briefly served as the national capital when Congress met there in late 1784.

New Jersey holds which population distinction among US states?

Most densely populated: the 2020 census counted about 9.29 million people in the fifth-smallest state by land area, roughly 1,260 residents per square mile.

New Jersey ratified the US Constitution in December 1787, making it which state to do so?

Third: only Delaware and Pennsylvania were quicker, and New Jersey's convention took barely a week to approve the Constitution unanimously.

Which Indigenous people lived across what is now New Jersey when Europeans arrived in the 17th century?

The Lenape lived across the whole of what became New Jersey; English colonists called them the Delaware because they lived along the river the English had named for Virginia's governor, Lord De La Warr.

Which troops did Washington's army surprise after crossing the Delaware on the night of December 25-26, 1776?

Hessians: the German auxiliaries under Colonel Johann Rall were caught off guard on the morning of December 26, 1776, and routed, with Rall mortally wounded and about 900 of his men captured.

Because of its many Revolutionary War battles, New Jersey earned what title?

Crossroads of the Revolution: the Continental Army camped in New Jersey through three winters between its marches across the state, and the phrase is stamped on the state's 1999 quarter.

Edison perfected his incandescent light bulb in 1879 at his laboratory in which New Jersey community?

Menlo Park: Edison's team got a lamp to burn for over thirteen hours in October 1879 and lit up the laboratory for the public that December; in 1954 the surrounding township renamed itself Edison.

Which machine did Thomas Edison invent in New Jersey in 1877?

The phonograph: Edison's machine recorded sound on a sheet of tinfoil and played it back, a feat so startling that he went on to demonstrate it for President Hayes.

The first patented drive-in movie theater opened in June 1933 just outside which city on the Delaware?

Camden: Richard Hollingshead tested the idea in his own driveway, with a projector on his car's hood and a screen hung in the trees, before opening the theater in neighbouring Pennsauken.

The 1846 match long called baseball's first recorded game was played at the Elysian Fields in which city?

Hoboken: on June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers lost 23-1 in four innings at the Elysian Fields; it was long counted as the first recorded match, but reports of three games from October 1845 have since surfaced.

Rutgers played the first intercollegiate football game in 1869 against which college?

Princeton: on November 6, 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 in New Brunswick, with the Rutgers players wearing scarlet turbans and handkerchiefs to tell the sides apart.

Rutgers was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, honouring Charlotte, the wife of which British king?

George III: the college carried his queen's name for nearly sixty years, then became Rutgers in 1825 to honour Colonel Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War veteran whose $5,000 gift helped the struggling school.

At New Jersey's Nassau Hall in 1783, Congress learned which treaty had been signed?

The Treaty of Paris: Congress had fled to Nassau Hall that June after unpaid soldiers surrounded its meeting place in Pennsylvania, and was still sitting there when word came that the war was formally over.

Which Caldwell, New Jersey-born president was the first to serve non-consecutive terms?

Grover Cleveland, born in Caldwell in 1837, won more votes than Benjamin Harrison in 1888 yet lost in the Electoral College, then beat him four years later to return to the White House.

New Jersey is often called the world capital of which type of eatery?

Diners: the state earned the title as the hub of America's diner-building trade, and one firm, O'Mahony, turned out about 2,000 of the prefabricated restaurants.

New Jersey law requires every service station to do what for drivers?

Pump the gas for you: the state's ban on self-service gasoline cites the fire hazard, and since Oregon loosened its own ban New Jersey is the only state where drivers may not pump it themselves.

Which New Jersey breakfast meat was sold as Taylor's Prepared Ham until a 1906 food law forced a new name?

Pork roll: it failed the legal definition of ham in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, yet North Jersey still orders it as Taylor ham while the south of the state says pork roll.

Which fruit is New Jersey's official state fruit?

Blueberries: Elizabeth White and botanist Frederick Coville bred the first cultivated blueberries from wild New Jersey bushes at Whitesbog, selling their first crop in 1916.

New Jersey is the only US state that has yet to adopt which official symbol?

An official song: New Jersey has never adopted one, and in 2021 Maryland joined it in having none by scrapping the state song it had used since 1939.

The Jersey Shore's first boardwalk, built in 1870, was intended to solve what problem?

Sand being tracked into hotel lobbies: two local men tired of sand on their floors persuaded the city to lay the 1870 boardwalk, and its planks were hauled away at the end of every season.

Which pageant was first staged on Atlantic City's boardwalk in September 1921?

Miss America: the contest was timed for the days after Labor Day to keep summer visitors in town a little longer, and Margaret Gorman of Washington DC took the first title.

Which Monopoly property misspells the name of the real New Jersey place it copies?

Marvin Gardens: the real place is Marven Gardens, but the couple who taught Charles Darrow the game misspelled it on their homemade board, and Parker Brothers copied the slip.

When Atlantic City's first casino opened in 1978, which was the only other state with legal casinos?

Nevada had the only legal casinos until New Jersey voters, who had turned down a statewide plan in 1974, approved them for Atlantic City alone two years later; Resorts opened the first in May 1978.

Which South Jersey town, famed for its Victorian houses, bills itself as the nation's oldest seashore resort?

Cape May: a fire in 1878 destroyed much of the town centre, and the owners rebuilt almost entirely in the Victorian style that later made the whole city a National Historic Landmark.

The Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937 while landing at which New Jersey naval air station?

Lakehurst: the airship burned on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people; Herbert Morrison's 'Oh, the humanity!' was never heard live, but was recorded on the field and broadcast the next day.

Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast placed the Martian landing in which New Jersey hamlet?

Grover's Mill, in West Windsor Township, is where the Mercury Theatre's October 30, 1938 broadcast landed the first Martian cylinder; the panic it reportedly caused was later shown to be exaggerated.

Before reaching New Jersey in 1982, the Devils began NHL life in 1974 as the Scouts in which city?

Kansas City: the Scouts lasted only two seasons there before moving to Denver as the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and six years later the franchise moved again to become the New Jersey Devils.

Which two NFL teams share MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey?

Giants and Jets: both carry New York's name yet play in New Jersey, the Giants since 1976 and the Jets since 1984, and they opened MetLife Stadium together in 2010.

Which crooner was born in Hoboken in 1915 and got his break with the Hoboken Four?

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken on December 12, 1915, and won the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in 1935 with a local group renamed the Hoboken Four.

Bruce Springsteen was born in Long Branch and grew up in which Monmouth County town?

Freehold: Springsteen grew up there after his 1949 birth in Long Branch, and 'My Hometown' on Born in the U.S.A. draws on the Freehold of his childhood.

Which Sayreville band named its 1988 album New Jersey?

Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi recorded his first single, 'Runaway', at his cousin's Manhattan studio, and five years after forming the band he named its fourth album for his home state.

Which best-selling musician was born in Newark and started singing at New Hope Baptist Church?

Whitney Houston, born in Newark in 1963, sang in the junior gospel choir at New Hope Baptist Church and was a backing vocalist for Chaka Khan while still in high school.

Who created The Sopranos, the HBO drama about a New Jersey mob boss with panic attacks?

David Chase, raised in New Jersey, based Tony's manipulative mother Livia on his own mother, and ran The Sopranos on HBO from 1999 to 2007.

Which 172-mile toll road runs from the New York border down the length of the Jersey Shore?

The Garden State Parkway was first planned as a toll-free road, but the money ran short and a 1952 law turned it into a toll parkway paid for with bonds.

Which double-decked Hudson River bridge, opened in 1931, links Fort Lee with Upper Manhattan?

George Washington: the bridge's steel towers were designed to be cased in granite and concrete, but cost and public taste left the latticework bare; the lower deck was added in 1962.

Which crossing connecting Jersey City to Manhattan opened in 1927?

The Holland Tunnel is named not for the Netherlands but for its first chief engineer, Clifford Holland, who died in 1924, three years before it opened between Jersey City and Lower Manhattan.

Which soup company has been headquartered in Camden, New Jersey, since 1869?

Campbell's: Joseph Campbell and Abraham Anderson began canning in Camden in 1869, and in 1897 chemist John Dorrance worked out how to condense soup, which meant smaller cans and a cheaper product.

Which hiking trail climbs out of the Delaware Water Gap and follows Kittatinny Ridge through New Jersey?

The Appalachian Trail follows Kittatinny Ridge toward the state's highest point, then turns east and swaps mountain rock for long boardwalks laid across the marshes.

Property-owning women in New Jersey could do what from 1776 until an 1807 law barred them?

Vote in elections: the 1776 constitution gave the ballot to 'all inhabitants' worth fifty pounds, so unmarried women and free Black men voted until the legislature limited it to white men in 1807.

Which private research campus, headquartered for decades in New Jersey, gave the world the transistor?

Bell Labs: John Bardeen and Walter Brattain got the first transistor working at its Murray Hill campus in December 1947, and within weeks their colleague William Shockley had conceived an improved design.

Which part of the Statue of Liberty has been closed to visitors since the 1916 Black Tom explosion in Jersey City?

The torch: agents working for Germany blew up a munitions depot on Black Tom island on July 30, 1916, shrapnel struck the statue across the water, and the torch has never reopened.

Which city, known as Silk City, grew up beside a Great Falls that is now a national historical park?

Paterson was founded in 1792 by a manufacturing society that bought 700 acres around the 77-foot Great Falls to power its mills, and was named for the governor who signed the society's charter.

Which theme park opened in Jackson Township in 1974 alongside its own safari park?

Six Flags Great Adventure opened in 1974 simply as Great Adventure, the project of restaurateur Warner LeRoy, and took the Six Flags name only after the chain bought it in 1977.

Lucy, a six-storey landmark built in Margate City in 1881, is shaped like which animal?

An elephant: Lucy has served as a summer cottage and a tavern, and in 1970 volunteers raised the money to move her to a new lot rather than see her demolished.

Which shore town is famous for its 1950s and 60s 'doo-wop' motel architecture?

Wildwood: its motels went up in the 1950s and 1960s, and a local preservation league now shows off their neon signs and furniture in a museum of its own.

Which city, New Jersey's largest, is home to Liberty International Airport?

Newark: the airport added 'Liberty' to its name in 2002 in tribute to the victims of September 11, the day United Flight 93 took off from one of its gates.

Which future president was governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913 after running its Ivy League university?

Woodrow Wilson, a university president from 1902 to 1910, was governor from 1911 to 1913, broke with the party bosses to pass progressive reforms, and beat Taft and Roosevelt in 1912.

Most New Jersey residents live in the metropolitan area of one of which two cities?

New York and Philadelphia: North Jersey looks to one and South Jersey to the other, and hundreds of thousands of residents cross the state line to work every day.

Edison built his larger 1887 laboratory complex in which New Jersey town?

West Orange: Edison opened the five-building complex in November 1887, and its grounds later held the Black Maria, the odd-looking studio where his company began making movies.

Jersey City is the county seat of which New Jersey county?

Hudson County: Jersey City is its seat and largest city, with about 30 miles of waterfront on the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Hackensack River and Newark Bay.

Which bird is the mascot of Jersey City's Saint Peter's University, a nod to the Dutch settlement of Pavonia?

Peacock: the campus stands on land once held by the Dutch patroon Michiel Pauw, whose surname means peacock, and Pavonia, the name of his 1630 settlement, is its Latin form.

Which Revolutionary War clash took place at a British fort in what is now downtown Jersey City in August 1779?

Paulus Hook: Major Henry 'Light-Horse Harry' Lee, then 23, led a night raid on the British fort on August 19, 1779, surprised the garrison and withdrew at daylight with 158 prisoners.

Which founding father helped create the 1804 'Associates of the Jersey Company' behind Jersey City?

Alexander Hamilton helped set up the Associates of the Jersey Company in 1804 to develop the waterfront opposite Manhattan, but never saw it built: that July he was fatally shot in his duel with Aaron Burr.

Which line made Jersey City boss Frank Hague notorious?

'I am the law': Hague said it while overruling an official so that two truant boys could take jobs, but his critics turned it into shorthand for his thirty-year grip on the city.

In 1908 Jersey City became the first US city to continuously do what to its drinking water?

Chlorinate it: Dr John Leal's system at the city's Boonton Reservoir was challenged in court, and the verdict approving chlorine as safe led waterworks across the country to copy it.

What is the giant timepiece on the Jersey City waterfront, billed as the world's largest of its kind, called?

The Colgate Clock, 50 feet across, was set going in 1924 at the Colgate soap works on the waterfront, and the smaller clock it replaced was shipped off to the company's plant in Indiana.

Which Jersey City park opened in 1976 on the waterfront around the old Central Railroad terminal?

Liberty State Park opened on June 14, 1976, in time for the Bicentennial, after local residents spent years campaigning to turn 1,212 acres of the harbour waterfront into parkland.

Jersey City's Exchange Place financial district has earned what nickname?

Wall Street West: banks and other financial firms moved offices across the river from Manhattan, and the cluster they formed on the waterfront earned the district its name.

New Jersey's seal shows the goddesses Liberty and Ceres standing above which state motto?

Liberty and Prosperity: Ceres, goddess of the harvest, holds a cornucopia for the second half of the motto, while Liberty carries a staff topped with a cap, on a design dating from 1777.

India Square in Jersey City's Journal Square district is nicknamed 'Little' what, after an Indian city?

Bombay: the blocks of Indian shops and restaurants grew up as immigrants settled around Journal Square, in a city where about four in ten residents were born abroad as of 2020.

Which physicist worked at New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study from 1933 until his death in 1955?

Albert Einstein was one of the Institute's first professors, and he reportedly asked that his house on Mercer Street never be made a museum, so it is still a private home.

Which New Jersey county, seated at Elizabeth, was created last?

Union County broke from Essex County in 1857 to become New Jersey's youngest county, yet its seat is among the state's oldest towns: Elizabeth was the colony's first capital.

What were New Jersey's elected county officials uniquely called until a 2020 law renamed them?

Freeholders: the 'Board of Chosen Freeholders' title dated from colonial property-holding rules; Governor Murphy signed the bill renaming them county commissioners on August 21, 2020, effective January 2021.

Who became New Jersey's first lieutenant governor in January 2010, elected alongside Chris Christie?

Kim Guadagno took office on January 19, 2010; until voters approved the post in 2005, a vacant governorship passed to the state Senate president, which had produced a run of acting governors.

New Jersey's highest spot, the 1,803-foot High Point, stands in which county in the state's northwest corner?

Sussex County's High Point became a state park in 1923 when the Kuser family donated the land; they then built the 220-foot obelisk on the summit to honour New Jersey's war veterans.

Which historic site in New York Harbor did the Supreme Court rule in 1998 lies mostly in New Jersey?

Ellis Island is mostly landfill, and the justices gave New Jersey the roughly 23 acres added around the original island. New York kept under five acres, including the natural core.

Which packaging material was invented in Hawthorne, New Jersey, in 1957 as a failed wallpaper?

Bubble wrap began as two shower curtains sealed together with air trapped between them. It flopped as wallpaper and as greenhouse insulation before IBM used it to protect computers in shipment.

Which emperor's older brother, once King of Spain, settled on an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey?

Napoleon I had made Joseph Bonaparte king of Naples and then of Spain. After the empire fell, Joseph emigrated and entertained leading American politicians at his Point Breeze estate.

Bones dug up in Haddonfield, New Jersey, in 1858 became the first mounted skeleton of which animal?

A dinosaur, Hadrosaurus, went on display in 1868, the first ever mounted. Fourth-graders from Haddon Township later lobbied successfully to make it the official state dinosaur.

Which 1980 slasher film used a Boy Scout camp in Warren County, New Jersey, as Camp Crystal Lake?

Friday the 13th was shot from September 1979 at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco in Hardwick, a working Scout camp. The camp has since hosted Crystal Lake tours of the filming spots for fans.

Which Mars candy has been made at a factory in Hackettstown, New Jersey, since 1958?

M&M's were sold only to the military during World War II, because the hard shell let soldiers carry chocolate in hot climates without it melting. The company outgrew two Newark factories before moving to Hackettstown.

Which moonwalking astronaut grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, where a school is named after him?

Buzz Aldrin was born in neighbouring Glen Ridge to a mother whose maiden name was Moon. He played centre on Montclair High School's unbeaten 1946 state championship football team.

Which DuPont invention did Roy Plunkett discover by accident at Deepwater, New Jersey, in 1938?

Teflon turned up as a whitish powder inside a gas cylinder that seemed to have emptied itself. Plunkett's team had been trying to make a new refrigerant, not a slippery plastic.

Which animals killed four people along the Jersey Shore and in Matawan Creek in July 1916?

Sharks caused a national panic that summer, and three of the five attacks happened in a creek well inland. Scientists still debate whether a great white or a bull shark was to blame.

Which future president bought the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League in 1983?

Donald Trump paid about $6 million for the team, then pushed the spring league to move to autumn and take on the NFL. It never played that 1986 season and folded.

Which folk heroine is said to have taken over a cannon at the 1778 Battle of Monmouth?

Molly Pitcher is usually identified as Mary Ludwig Hays, an artilleryman's wife who carried water to the gunners. When her husband fell, she is said to have taken his place loading the cannon.

Which New Jersey town, a Continental Army winter camp, holds the first US national historical park?

Morristown sheltered the army through the hard winter of 1779-80, with Washington's headquarters at the Ford Mansion. Congress created the park in March 1933.

In which New Jersey township did Vice President Aaron Burr fight his fatal duel in July 1804?

Weehawken was a popular dueling ground because New Jersey prosecuted duellists less aggressively than New York. Both men rowed over from Manhattan that morning in separate boats.

Which aviator's infant son was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1932?

Charles Lindbergh's loss led Congress to make carrying a kidnap victim across state lines a federal crime. The trial in Flemington was soon dubbed the Trial of the Century.

Which New Jersey shore city is named in the title of Bruce Springsteen's 1973 debut album?

Asbury Park takes its own name from Francis Asbury, America's first Methodist bishop. Columbia's president rejected the first version of the record, feeling it lacked a hit single.

Which jazz bandleader, born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1904, has a theatre there named after him?

Count Basie earned free admission to Red Bank's Palace Theater as a boy by doing chores there. He switched from drums to piano at 15, discouraged by a gifted local drummer.

Which beach borough hosted the cast's summer house in MTV's reality series Jersey Shore?

Seaside Heights housed the cast for four of the six seasons, with detours to Miami Beach and Florence. The housemates also worked shifts at a store on the boardwalk.

Which director shot Clerks at the convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, where he worked by day?

Kevin Smith raised the $27,575 budget by selling his comic book collection and maxing out credit cards. He filmed at night after his shifts, often sleeping barely an hour a day.

Which Yankees catcher, long a Montclair resident, has a museum at Montclair State University?

Yogi Berra opened the museum in 1998 beside a stadium that also carries his name. Its exhibits include the mitt he used to catch the only perfect game in World Series history.

Which NFL coach who once taught in Englewood has a New Jersey Turnpike service area named after him?

Vince Lombardi taught Latin and chemistry at St. Cecilia High School while coaching its football team to national prominence. His rest stop is the northernmost on the road.

Which author of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey?

Judy Blume, a dentist's daughter, became one of the most frequently banned authors in American schools and libraries. Five of her books made a list of the 1990s' 100 most banned titles.

Which Bayonne-born fantasy author wrote the novels that became HBO's Game of Thrones?

George R. R. Martin grew up in a federal housing project near the Bayonne docks, the son of a longshoreman. He took the second R., for Richard, as a confirmation name at 13.

Which NBA team called New Jersey home for 35 seasons before leaving for a new arena in 2012?

The Nets started out in Teaneck in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans, then spent nine years on Long Island before coming back. Their 2012 move made them Brooklyn's first major team since baseball's Dodgers.

Which sprinter and long jumper with nine Olympic gold medals grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey?

Carl Lewis began long jumping at 13 and emerged as a prospect at Willingboro High School. He added eight world championship golds to his Olympic haul.

Which baseball star, the unanimous 2014 American League MVP, is known as the Millville Meteor?

Mike Trout grew up in Millville, New Jersey, and adopted the nickname after a vandal added it to his Wikipedia page and it caught on. His high school awards his old number to its team captain.

Which sibling pop act, raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, found fame on the Disney Channel in the 2000s?

The Jonas Brothers wrote their first record after the family moved to nearby Little Falls in 2005. The three brothers then won a young audience with guest spots on Hannah Montana.

Which drink did Vineland dentist Thomas Welch first bottle in 1869 for his Methodist church?

Grape juice kept without fermenting because Welch pasteurised it, giving teetotal congregations a substitute for communion wine. He marketed it as Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine.

Which type of warship is USS New Jersey, a museum ship that fought in World War II and Vietnam?

A battleship of the Iowa class, she earned 19 battle and campaign stars and was the only American battleship to give gunfire support in Vietnam. She opened as a museum in 2001.

Which thinly settled region, over a fifth of New Jersey's land, became a National Reserve in 1978?

The Pine Barrens are named for acidic, nutrient-poor soil that defeated farmers and so kept the forest intact. Beneath it lies an aquifer holding some 17 trillion gallons of very pure water.

Which line of cliffs runs north from Jersey City for about 20 miles, facing Manhattan?

The Palisades were being dynamited for railroad ballast in the 1890s, which spurred local campaigns to save them. They climb from about 300 feet to 540 feet near their northern end.

Which stretch of the New Jersey coast holds the oldest working lighthouse in the United States, built in 1764?

Sandy Hook's tower was first called the New York Lighthouse, because a New York lottery and a tax on ships entering the port paid for it. It survived a patriot attempt to destroy it during the Revolutionary War.

Which thrill-ride venue in Vernon, New Jersey, closed in 1996 after years of injuries and lawsuits?

Action Park was nicknamed Traction Park and Class Action Park by locals and healthcare workers. By 1995 its owners were running the water slides and go-karts with no liability insurance.

Which animal, whose head tops the New Jersey state seal, became the official state animal in 1977?

The horse won the title after lobbying by a fifth-grade class from Harrington Park and an eighth-grader. On the seal its head sits above a knight's helmet, standing for speed and strength.

What do New Jersey drivers call the right-hand ramp used for turning left at many busy junctions?

A jughandle keeps turning cars out of the fast lane, an idea introduced in the 1940s. New Jersey had 160 of them by 1960, and the manoeuvre is also known as a Jersey left.

Which team nickname did Rutgers students choose in 1955 to replace the much-mocked Chanticleers?

Scarlet Knights won a campus-wide election because the Chanticleer, a fighting rooster from a medieval fable, kept inviting jokes about being chicken. Even the football coach backed the change.

Which Englewood, New Jersey, group scored rap's first Top 40 hit with Rapper's Delight?

The Sugarhill Gang peaked at number 36 in January 1980 and never had another American Top 40 hit. Later singles such as Apache still charted in Europe.

Which wounded president was taken by train to Elberon, New Jersey, where he died in September 1881?

James A. Garfield had longed to escape the capital's heat, and volunteers built a spur line in a single night to bring his cushioned railcar to an oceanfront mansion. He died there two weeks later.

Which tournament's 2026 final was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey?

The FIFA World Cup final there was the first to include a halftime show, which stretched the break past 27 minutes. The venue was renamed New York New Jersey Stadium for the tournament.

Which Major League Soccer club has played its home matches in Harrison, New Jersey, since 2010?

New York Red Bulls began in 1996 as the MetroStars, a name borrowed from Metromedia, the media company founded by co-owner John Kluge. Nike's suggestion, MetroFlash, was rejected.

Which president met Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin at a 1967 summit in Glassboro, New Jersey?

Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to meet in the capital to avoid anti-war protesters, while his guest preferred New York. A college president's house roughly halfway between them was the compromise.

What nickname was given to the world's first film studio, built by Thomas Edison in New Jersey?

The Black Maria reminded Edison's staff of the cramped, stuffy police vans of the day. The tar-papered studio sat on a turntable so that its roof window could follow the sun.

Which discovery did two radio astronomers make in 1965 using a horn antenna in Holmdel, New Jersey?

Cosmic microwave background radiation, which fills the universe, was picked up by an antenna built in 1959 to bounce signals off balloon satellites. The find won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Which antibiotic, the first to cure tuberculosis, was isolated in a Rutgers University lab in 1943?

Streptomycin was isolated by Albert Schatz, a PhD student in Selman Waksman's laboratory. Waksman received the 1952 Nobel Prize, and Schatz sued to be recognised as co-discoverer.

Which colour is the field of New Jersey's state flag, a nod to Revolutionary War uniform facings?

Buff facings had been reserved for Continental generals and their aides until a 1779 order granted them to New Jersey's regiments. The flag itself was not adopted until 1896.

Which area code, the first on AT&T's original 1947 list, once covered the whole of New Jersey?

201 was number one of the 86 original codes. In 1951 it also carried the first direct-dialled long-distance call, placed from Englewood to Alameda, California.

Which suffragist from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, co-wrote the original Equal Rights Amendment?

Alice Paul was jailed in 1917 during the suffrage campaign and began a hunger strike over prison conditions. She then led the National Woman's Party for half a century.

Which New Jersey river is named in the title of Rutgers University's alma mater, written in 1873?

The Raritan inspired student Howard Newton Fuller in 1873, when the glee club asked him for an official school song on the night of a concert in Metuchen.

Which lake on the border of Sussex and Morris counties is the largest freshwater body in New Jersey?

Hopatcong covers about four square miles and lies more than 900 feet above sea level, which made it the main water supply for the Morris Canal.

Which Long Branch-born vice president died in office in 1899 while serving under William McKinley?

Garret Hobart steered bills through the Senate so effectively that he was known as the assistant President. His place on the 1900 ticket went to Theodore Roosevelt.

Which modernist poet spent his working life as a doctor in his hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey?

William Carlos Williams practised pediatrics and general medicine while writing, and served as a local hospital's chief of pediatrics from 1924 until his death in 1963.