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Learn About New Jersey
First Inhabitants	Early History	Geography & Landforms	Economy
Capital: Trenton	Entered the Union: 12/18/1787	Population: 8,414,350	Area (square miles) 8,721
State Bird: Eastern Goldfinch	State Flower: Violet	Nickname: Garden State	Governor: Jon Corzine
Web Links: State Home Page	Home Page for Students	Members of Congress

Places to Visit in New Jersey: (Click the links to learn more.)

The New Jersey State Aquarium - Camden
Just minutes from Philadelphia, this aquarium offers more than 80 exhibits that include 4,000 fish and more than 500 species. Visit the on-line Kids’ Cove for games and activities for kids of all ages.

Ellis Island - Access from Liberty State Park in New Jersey
More than 12 million immigrants passed through this facility between 1892 and 1954. Retrace their steps and view exhibits that commemorate their courage.

Edison National Historic Site - West Orange
This laboratory created by Thomas Alva Edison in produced the motion picture camera, vastly improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery. Interpret and experience important aspects of America's industrial, scientific, social and economic past.

Walt Whitman House - Camden
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), one of America's most distinguished writers, purchased the home in 1884 and resided there until his death in 1892. It was here that Whitman revised his renowned "Leaves of Grass." The six-room house is a National Historic Landmark.

Tuckerton Seaport - Tuckerton
See the Jersey Shore as it was long ago. Find out about pirates, mooncussers, New Jersey lighthouses, the life of a lighthouse keeper, shipwrecks, and whaling off of the New Jersey coast. Learn to speak Leni Lenape and see aquatic species up close.

Famous Citizens:

Aaron Burr
Born in 1756 in Newark, Aaron Burr became vice-president of the United States under Thomas Jefferson (1801-1805). Unfortunately, he is better known for having killed Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel in 1804.

James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was the first major American novelist. His best-known tales of frontier adventure include The Last of the Mohicans (1826), an adventure story set in the Lake Champlain. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789.

Donald Fletcher Holmes
Donald Fletcher Holmes was born in Woodbury, NJ in 1910. He invented the process for making polyurethane. Various forms of polyurethane are used in to manufacture upholstery material, heat-insulating material in homes, offices, and refrigerators, life-saving artificial hearts, safety padding in modern automobiles, and carpeting.

Zebulon M. Pike
The famous explorer Zebulon M. Pike was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1779. He was an army officer who led many expeditions to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi and negotiate peace treaties with Native American tribes. He is best remembered for discovering the mountain in Colorado that bears his name: Pike’s Peak.

William Henry Vanderbilt
Financier William Henry Vanderbilt was born in New Brunswick, NJ in 1821. He controlled one of America’s greatest family fortunes and headed one of the nation’s largest corporations - the New York Central Railroad. Vanderbilt managed to double his family’s fortune to the present-day equivalent of $3 billion, making him the richest man in the world at the time of his death in 1885.