Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. It is the county seat of Hudson County, the county's most populous city) With more than 40 languages spoken in more than 52% of homes and as of 2020, 42.5% of residents born outside the United States, it is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States. the city is an important transportation terminus and distribution and manufacturing center for the Port of New York and New Jersey with Port Jersey as the city's intermodal freight transport facility and container shipping terminal. The Holland Tunnel, PATH rapid transit system, NJ Transit bus and NY Waterway ferry service connect across the Hudson River with Manhattan.
The area was settled by the Dutch in the 17th century as Pavonia and later established as Bergen; the first permanent settlement, local civil government and oldest municipality in what became the state of New Jersey. The area came under English control in 1664. Jersey City was incorporated in 1838 and annexed Van Vorst Township in 1851. On May 3, 1870, following a special election in 1869 with a majority of county support, Jersey City annexed Bergen City and Hudson City to form "Greater Jersey City" with Greenville Township joining in 1873. Jersey City grew into a busy port city on New York Harbor by the late 19th and early 20th century. Jersey City's official motto, displayed on the city seal and flag, is "Let Jersey Prosper" referencing its 19th century border dispute with New York City.
Jersey City is home to several institutions of higher education such as New Jersey City University, Saint Peter's University and Hudson County Community College. As the county seat, Jersey City is home to the Hudson County Courthouse and Frank J. Guarini Justice Complex. Cultural venues throughout the city include the Loew's Jersey Theatre, White Eagle Hall, the Liberty Science Center, Ellis Island, Mana Contemporary and the Museum of Jersey City History. Large parks in Jersey City are Liberty State Park, Lincoln Park and Berry Lane Park. Redevelopment of the Jersey City waterfront has made the city one of the largest hubs for banking and finance in the United States and has led to the district and city being nicknamed Wall Street West. Since the 1990s, Jersey City has been a destination for artists and hipsters. With the city's proximity and connections to Manhattan, its growing arts, culture, culinary and nightlife scene and its own finance and tech based economy, apartment rents in the city have grown to become some of the highest in the United States. In response, Jersey City has instituted zoning and legislation to require developers to include affordable housing units in their developments. In 2023 and 2025, Travel + Leisure ranked Jersey City as the best place to live in New Jersey.
History
Lenape and New Netherland
The land that is now Jersey City was part of Lenapehoking and inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of Native American tribes (later called the Delaware Indian) that were part of the Algonquian nation. In 1609, Henry Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East Asia on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, anchored his small vessel Halve Maen (English: Half Moon) at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove and Weehawken Cove, and elsewhere along what was later named the North River. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he sailed as far north as Albany and later claimed the region for the Netherlands. The contemporary flag of the city is a variation on the Prince's Flag from the Netherlands. The stripes are blue, white and yellow, with the center of the flag showing the city seal, depicting Hudson's ship, the Half Moon, and other modern vessels.
By 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the Hudson River and purchased the land from the Lenape for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle, and half a barrel of beer. This grant is dated November 22, 1630, and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was an absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, which had been named Pavonia (the Latinized form of Pauw's name means "peacock" and Pavonia means "land of the peacock"). Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove in 1634 and became the home of Cornelius Henrick Van Vorst, who had succeeded Bout as superintendent, and whose family would become influential in the development of the city.
By the 1640s, relations with the Lenape deteriorated, in part because Director-General Willem Kieft attempted to drive out the Lenape through intimidation and taxation. During Kieft's War, approximately 120 Lenape were killed by the Dutch, including women and children, in a massacre ordered by Kieft at Pavonia on the night of February 25, 1643. The attack was ordered without the approval of his advisory council, against the wishes of the colonists and led to a series of raids and reprisals by the Lenape and the virtual destruction of the settlement on the west bank. On May 11, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to replace Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland. On September 15, 1655, Pavonia was attacked as part of a Munsee occupation of New Amsterdam called the Peach War that saw 40 colonists killed and over 100, mostly women and children, taken captive and held at Paulus Hook. They were later ransomed to New Amsterdam.
On January 10, 1658, Stuyvesant "re-purchased" the scattered communities of farmsteads that characterized the Dutch settlements of Pavonia: Communipaw, Harsimus, Paulus Hook, Hoebuck, Awiehaken, Pamrapo, and other lands "behind Kill van Kull". The village of Bergen (located inside a palisaded garrison) was established by the settlers who wished to return to the west bank of the Hudson on what is now Bergen Square in 1660, the first town square in North America, and officially chartered by Stuyvesant on September 5, 1661, as the state's first local civil government. The village was designed by Jacques Cortelyou, the first surveyor of New Amsterdam. The word berg taken from the Dutch means "hill", while bergen means "place of safety." The charter partially removed Bergen from the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam and put the surrounding settlements under its authority. As a result, it is regarded as the first permanent settlement and oldest municipality in what would become the state of New Jersey. It is also the home of Public School No. 11, the nation's longest-continuous school site and the site of the first free public school building in New Jersey. Furthermore, Old Bergen Church is the oldest continuous congregation in New Jersey. In addition, the oldest surviving houses in Jersey City are of Dutch origin including the Newkirk House (1690), the Van Vorst Farmhouse (1740), and the Van Wagenen House (1740).
In 1661, Communipaw Ferry began operation as the first ferry service between the village of Communipaw (Jersey City) and New Amsterdam (Manhattan) shortly after the village of Bergen was established.
Province of New Jersey
On August 27, 1664, four English frigates sailed into New York Harbor and captured Fort Amsterdam, and by extension, all of New Netherland, a prelude to the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and renamed it New York. Under the Articles of Capitulation, the Dutch residents of Bergen were allowed to continue their way of life and worship. Later in 1664, the Duke of York (later James II), granted his new land between the Hudson River and Delaware River to Sir George Carteret in recognition of his loyalty to the Crown through the English Civil War. Carteret named the land New Jersey after his homeland, the Channel Island of Jersey. The Concession and Agreement was issued soon after providing religious freedom and recognition of private property in the colony. In exchange, residents were required to pledge loyalty to their new government and pay annual fees known as quit-rents. In 1668, the Bergen town charter was confirmed by Philip Carteret, the first English provincial Governor of New Jersey.
Following the Treaty of Westminster, New Jersey split into East Jersey and West Jersey. From 1674 to 1702, Bergen was part of East Jersey and became a town in Bergen County on March 7, 1683, one of the four newly independent counties in East Jersey. In 1702, New Jersey was reunified and became a royal colony. In 1710, by royal decree of Queen Anne of Great Britain, Bergen County was enlarged to include land that had been a part of Essex County. As a result, the village of Hackensack (in the newly formed New Barbados Township) was considered more accessible by the majority of the county's new inhabitants and became the new county seat. Bergen was later re-established by royal charter on January 4, 1714. and operated the service from Paulus Hook to Cortlandt Street. To further attract patrons to his ferry landing, Van Vorst created a mile-long circular horse racing track that attracted tourists from both sides of the Hudson and built the Van Vorst Tavern near Grand and Hudson Streets as a one-story building with a Dutch roof and eaves and an overhanging porch that faced the river. To further ensure the profitability of his business ventures on the small island of Paulus Hook, he created an embankment road above the tidal marshes to the mainland. Ahead of the Revolutionary War, Van Vorst declared himself a patriot and in 1774 was appointed to one of the committees of correspondence, representing Bergen County and attended a meeting in New Brunswick to elect delegates to the Second Continental Congress.
American Revolution
thumb|upright=1|Battle of Paulus Hook Monument
In 1776, even before the war, General George Washington ordered American patriots to construct several forts to defend the western banks of the Hudson River, one of which was located at Paulus Hook. The fort was a naturally defensible position that guarded New York from British attack, guarded the Hudson River channel and the gateway to New Jersey. Following the defeat of General Washington and the Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn, the British took control of New York City on September 15, 1776 and turned their ships towards Paulus Hook. On September 23, the American patriots abandoned the fort and moved munitions and supplies to Bergen, leaving the fort to become the first New Jersey territory invaded and occupied by the British.
In mid-summer 1779, a 23-year-old Princeton University graduate, Major Henry Lee, recommended to General Washington a daring plan for the Continental Army to attack the fort, in what became known as the Battle of Paulus Hook. The assault was planned to begin shortly after midnight on August 19, 1779. Lee led a force of about 300 men, some of whom got lost during the march through the swampy, marshy land. The attack was late to start but the main contingent of the force was able to reach the fort's gate without being challenged. It is believed that the British mistook the approaching force for allied Hessians returning from patrol, though this has not been definitively documented.
The attacking Patriots succeeded in damaging the fort and took 158 British prisoners, but were unable to destroy the fort and spike its cannons. As daytime approached, Lee decided the prudent action was to have his Patriots withdraw before British forces from New York could cross the river. Paulus Hook remained in British hands until after the war but the battle was a small strategic victory for the forces of independence as it forced the British to abandon their plans for taking additional rebel positions in the New York area.
Later that August, General Washington met with the Marquis de Lafayette in the village of Bergen to discuss war strategy over lunch and to bait the British into attacking Bergen from New York. The meeting purportedly took place under an apple tree at the Van Wagenen House on Academy Street. Additionally, a nearby "point of rocks" at the east end of the street provided an ideal vantage point for military surveillance of the Hudson River.
One day in September 1780, a local Bergen farmer, Jane Tuers, was selling her goods in British-occupied Manhattan when she stopped in Fraunces Tavern and spoke with the owner, Samuel Fraunces. He informed Tuers that British soldiers were in his tavern toasting General Benedict Arnold, who was to deliver West Point to the British. Tuers returned to Bergen later that day and informed her brother Daniel Van Reypen about the conspiracy. Van Reypen, a staunch patriot, rode to Hackensack to meet with General Anthony Wayne who then sent Van Reypen to inform General Washington of the conspiracy. The information provided by Tuers confirmed what Washington had suspected of Arnold and led to the arrest, trial, conviction and hanging of co-conspirator John André for treason and stopped the plot to surrender West Point. Arnold would later defect to the British to escape prosecution.
On November 22, 1783, the British evacuated Paulus Hook and sailed home three days before they left New York on Evacuation Day. These events have been commemorated throughout the city. In the mid-1800s, Bergen named Lafayette Park in honor of Marquis de Lafayette, whose name is now synonymous with Communipaw. In 1903, an obelisk was erected at Paulus Hook Park at the intersection of Washington and Grand Streets, the site of the fort, to memorialize the Battle of Paulus Hook. In 1925, a plaque honoring Jane Tuer's heroism was installed at the site of her former home now Hudson Catholic Regional High School. In 2021, the restored Van Wagenen House was re-opened as the Museum of Jersey City History. The consortium of 35 investors behind the company were predominantly Federalists who, like Hamilton, had been swept out of power in the election of 1800 by Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans. Large tracts of land in Paulus Hook were purchased by the company with the titles owned by Anthony Dey, who was from a prominent old Dutch family, and his two cousins, Colonel Richard Varick, the former mayor of New York City (1789–1801), and Jacob Radcliff, a Justice of the New York Supreme Court who would later become mayor of New York City from 1810 to 1811 and again from 1815 to 1818. They laid out the city squares and streets that still characterize the neighborhood, giving them names also seen in Lower Manhattan or after war heroes (Grove, Varick, Mercer, Wayne, Monmouth and Montgomery among them). John B. Coles, a former New York State senator (1799–1802), purchased the area north of Paulus Hook known as Harsimus and laid out a grid plan centered around a park. Following Hamilton's death, Coles proposed naming the park in his honor as "Hamilton Park."
Despite Hamilton's untimely death in July 1804, the Association carried on with the New Jersey Legislature approving Hamilton's charter of incorporation on November 10, 1804. However, the enterprise was mired in a legal boundary dispute between New York City and the state of New Jersey over who owned the waterfront. This along with the associated press coverage discouraged investors who wanted lots on the waterfront for commercial purposes. The unresolved dispute would continue until the Treaty of 1834 where New York City formally ceded control of the Jersey City waterfront to New Jersey. Over that time though, the Jersey Company opened the city's first medical facility, known as the "pest house", in 1808 and applied to the New Jersey Legislature to incorporate the "Town of Jersey" in 1819. The legislature enacted "An Act to incorporate the City of Jersey, in the County of Bergen" on January 28, 1820. Under the provision, five freeholders (including Varick, Dey, and Radcliff) were to be chosen as "the Board of Selectmen of Jersey City", thereby establishing the first governing body of the emerging municipality. The city was reincorporated on January 23, 1829, and again on February 22, 1838, at which time it became completely independent of Bergen and was given its present name. On February 22, 1840, Jersey City became part of the newly created Hudson County which separated from Bergen County and annexed the former Essex County land of New Barbadoes Neck.
thumb|right|1847 map of Paulus Hook and the Jersey City Ferry's route. Note the historic name of Pavonia.
In 1812, Robert Fulton began steam ferry service via The Jersey between Paulus Hook and Manhattan, eight years after building a shipyard at Greene and Morgan Streets. In 1834, the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company opened the city's first rail line from Jersey City Ferry to Newark. From 1834 to 1836, the Morris Canal was extended from Newark to Jersey City and New York Harbor linking the Delaware River with the Hudson River. This extension connected Jersey City to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and New Jersey's interior providing a steady and easy supply of coal and anthracite pig iron for the growing iron industry and other developing industries adopting steam power in Jersey City and the region. The city's location on the Hudson River also allowed it to benefit from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
In 1839, Provident Savings Institution was charted by the state as the first mutual savings bank in New Jersey and the first bank in Jersey City and Hudson County. Co-founded by the city's first mayor, Dudley S. Gregory (1838–1840), in the wake of the Panic of 1837, there was a general mistrust of banks by the public. In response, the bank's charter established it as a "mutual savings bank" to assist the city's immigrant poor. In 1891, the bank headquarters became the temporary home of the first branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library until the Main Library branch opened in 1901.
On April 12, 1841, the New Jersey Legislature incorporated Van Vorst Township from portions of Bergen. Land was donated by the Van Vorst family for a town square style park that became Van Vorst Park. The township was later annexed by Jersey City on March 18, 1851. From 1854 to 1874, the kitchen step of the Van Vorst Mansion, home of former mayor Cornelius Van Vorst (1860–1862), was known to be the slab of marble that was originally the base of the statue of King George III that was toppled by the Sons of Liberty at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan in 1776. Van Vorst also constructed the neighboring Barrow Mansion where his sister Eliza lived.
By mid century, Jersey City's rapidly urbanizing population began to encounter significant challenges gaining access to freshwater. In 1850, Jersey City Water Works engineer William S. Whitwell, proposed a three-reservoir complex in the Jersey City Heights (then part of North Bergen) connected to a pumping station near the Passaic River in Belleville by a massive underground aqueduct to deliver freshwater to the city. Reservoir No. 1 was built between 1851 and 1854 and Reservoir No. 3 was built between 1871 and 1874 under the direction of engineer John Culver. Reservoir No. 2 was never constructed and later became Pershing Field.
On May 2, 1867, The Evening Journal, was first published. The newspaper was founded by U.S. Army Civil War veterans William Dunning and Z. K. Pangborn at Exchange Place where it would grow and expand into additional buildings. Pangborn went on to serve as the chairman of the 1870 City Charter Commission and was active in city politics. In 1909, editor Joseph A. Dear renamed the paper The Jersey Journal and in 1911 the paper moved to the neighborhood that would later take its name, Journal Square.
In 1868, the Jersey City Board of Alderman took over the pest house and renamed it "Jersey City Charity Hospital" and operated it as a public medical facility, the first in the city and state, where physicians provided free medical care to city residents. In 1885, the hospital expanded to a new 200-bed facility on Bergen Hill to remove the hospital from the increasing industrial development at Paulus Hook. They would then be hidden in wagons en route to the Jersey City waterfront and Morris Canal Basin where abolitionists would hire ferry and coal boats to transport former slaves up to Canada or New England to freedom. Its estimated that more than 60,000 former slaves traveled through Jersey City including some that decided to stay and make the city their home.
In 1831, brothers Thomas and John Vreeland Jackson, who were former slaves freed by the Vreeland family, bought land in what is now Greenville. In 1857, they laid out Jackson Lane (now Winfield Avenue) between their houses, where during the Civil War, their property became an important station on the Underground Railroad. The city's Jackson Hill neighborhood and Jackson Square are named in their honor.
Consolidation of Jersey City
thumb|right|1860 map of Jersey City, Bergen City with Communipaw/Lafayette, and Greenville before consolidation (with each other and Hudson City)
Soon after the Civil War, the idea arose of uniting all of the towns of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. In 1868, a bill for submitting the question of consolidation of all of Hudson County to the voters was presented to the Board of Chosen Freeholders (now known as the Board of County Commissioners). The bill was approved by the state legislature on April 2, 1869, with a special election to be held on October 5, 1869. An element of the bill provided that only contiguous towns could be consolidated. While a majority of the voters across the county approved the merger, the only municipalities that had approved the consolidation plan and that adjoined Jersey City were Hudson City and Bergen City. The consolidation began on March 17, 1870, taking effect on May 3, 1870. Three years later on February 4, 1873, the present outline of Jersey City was completed when Greenville Township agreed to merge into the Greater Jersey City.
Following consolidation, the city's first university, Saint Peter's College, was charted in 1872 and classes began on September 2, 1878, in Paulus Hook. Decades later, it would adopt the peacock as its mascot in partial reference to the original settling of the Jersey City area as "Pavonia", land of the peacock.
On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland just off the city's shores at Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. In the coming decades, the statue would welcome millions of immigrants as they arrived by ship at Ellis Island, which opened in 1892.
By the late 1880s, three passenger railroad terminals opened in Jersey City along the Hudson River (Pavonia Terminal, Exchange Place and Communipaw) making Jersey City a terminus for the nation's rail network. The railroads transformed the city's geography by building several tunnels and cuts, such as the Bergen Arches, through the city and filling in the coves at Harsimus and Communipaw for the construction of several large freight rail yards along the waterfront.
Jersey City became an important port, railroad and manufacturing city during the 19th and 20th centuries. Much like New York City, Jersey City has always been a destination for new immigrants to the United States. German, Russian, Polish, Scottish, Irish and Italian immigrants settled in local tenements and found work at the local docks, railroads and adjacent companies such as American Can, American Sugar, A&P, Colgate, Clorox Co., Lorillard Tobacoo and Dixon Ticonderoga.
20th century
thumb|left|View of Exchange Place from the Hudson, 1920s
By the turn of the 20th century, the City Beautiful movement had spread throughout cities in the United States. Part of its mission was to preserve public space for recreational activities in urban industrial communities. The Hudson County Parks Commission was created in 1892 to plan and develop a county wide park and boulevard system similar to those found in other cities. From 1892 to 1897, Hudson Boulevard (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard) was built to connect the future park system from Bayonne to North Bergen through Jersey City. In 1905, Lincoln Park opened on the city's West Side as the largest park in Jersey City and the first and largest park in the county system. Designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie, the park was mostly built on undeveloped wetlands and woodlands known as "Glendale Woods", stretching from the Boulevard to the Hackensack River. The Jersey City government was also inspired by the City Beautiful movement to build more open space creating Dr. Leonard J. Gordon Park in the Heights along Hudson Boulevard, Mary Benson Park in Downtown and Bayside Park in Greenville. The movement also inspired the construction of grand civic buildings in the city such as City Hall and the Hudson County Courthouse. The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now the PATH system) opened between 1908 and 1913 as New Jersey's first underground rapid transit system. For the first time, Jersey City and the rail terminals at Hoboken, Pavonia and Exchange Place were directly linked with Midtown and Lower Manhattan under the Hudson River, providing an alternative to transferring to the extensive ferry system.
In 1910, William L. Dickinson High School opened as the first purpose-built high school in Jersey City. The design of the school, built during the City Beautiful movement, is thought to have been inspired by that of the Louvre Colonnade and Buckingham Palace. The prominent hilltop location of the school has been an important location throughout the city's history. During the Revolutionary War, it was used as a lookout by General Washington and Marquis de Lafayette to observe British movements at the forts at Paulus Hook and in Lower Manhattan. After the start of the War of 1812, the site assisted in defending New York Harbor with an arsenal built on the property's west side and with the east side serving as a troop campground. During the Civil War, the arsenal served as barracks for Union soldiers and a hospital. The school was used as an army training facility during World War I and World War II.
On July 30, 1916, the Black Tom explosion occurred killing 7 people, damaging the Statue of Liberty and causing millions of dollars in damage in Jersey City and throughout the New York metropolitan area. The blast was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Maryland. The explosion was an act of sabotage on American munitions by German spies of the Office of Naval Intelligence to prevent the ammunition from being shipped to the Allies for use during World War I. This event, coupled with the torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania, which killed 136 Americans in 1915, pushed the United States into entering the War in 1917. Hague ran the city with an iron fist while, at the same time, molding governors, United States senators, and judges to his whims while also being a close political ally to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Boss Hague was known to be loud and vulgar, but dressed in a stylish manner, earning him the nickname "King Hanky-Panky". In his later years in office, Hague would often dismiss his enemies as "reds" or "commies". Hague lived like a millionaire, despite having an annual salary that never exceeded $8,500. He was able to maintain a fourteen-room duplex apartment in Jersey City, a suite at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, and a palatial summer home in the Jersey Shore community of Deal, and travel to Europe yearly in the royal suites of the best ocean liners.
Hague's time as mayor was also marked by his direct influence in the construction of several important infrastructure, educational, open space, healthcare and public works projects that became functional civic landmarks that define the city to this day. Some of these projects are the construction of Journal Square and its theaters, the Holland Tunnel, the Wittpenn Bridge, the design of New Jersey Route 139, the Pulaski Skyway, Lincoln High School, Snyder High School, A. Harry Moore School, New Jersey City University, the Heights, Miller and Greenville branches of the library system, Pershing Field, Audubon Park, five public housing complexes, Harborside Terminal, the Seventh Police Precinct and Criminal Court, the expansion of Jersey City Hospital to Jersey City Medical Center, the Jersey City Armory and Roosevelt Stadium. Hague financed several of these projects with WPA funds secured by congresswoman Mary Teresa Norton (1925–1951),
the first woman elected to represent New Jersey or any state in the Northeast.
Post-World War II: 1950s–1970s
Following World War II, returning veterans created a post-war economic boom and were beginning to buy homes in the suburbs with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. During the Great Depression and the war years, not much new housing was constructed, leaving cities with older and overcrowded housing stock. In response, Jersey City looked to build new housing on undeveloped tracts around the city. College Towers was built on the West Side as the first middle-income housing cooperative apartment complex in New Jersey in 1956. Country Village was built in the 1960s as a middle-income "suburbia-in-the-city" planned community in the Greenville/West Side area to offer the "out of town" experience without leaving the city. The city had hoped that new residential neighborhoods and housing stock would keep the city's population stable.
In 1951, Seton Hall University School of Law opened on the site of the former John Marshall Law School at 40 Journal Square and would relocate to Newark by the end of the year. From 1956 to 1968, Jersey City Medical Center was the home of the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry, the predecessor to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), which would relocate to Newark in 1969.
thumb|right|Landfill adjacent to Greenville Yards in 1974 that would become part of Port Jersey
In 1956, the Newark Bay (Hudson County) Extension Interstate 78 of the New Jersey Turnpike opened. As the first limited-access section of Interstate 78 to be built in the state, the extension connected Jersey City and the Holland Tunnel to the mainline of the Turnpike in Newark via the Newark Bay Bridge and at an estimated cost of $2,765 per foot, it was deemed the "world's most expensive road". That same year, the standard shipping container debuted along with the maiden voyage of the container ship SS Ideal X from Port Newark to the Port of Houston. These innovations changed forever the way the maritime industry shipped goods by sea and led to the transformation of Port Newark into the leading container port in New York Harbor. As a result, the Jersey City waterfront, along with the other traditional waterfront port facilities in the harbor at Hoboken, Manhattan and Brooklyn, quickly became antiquated and fell into a steep decline. Additionally, by the late 1960s, the rail terminals and associated ferry service that were so vital to the city's economic health had closed and were later abandoned after the host railroads declared bankruptcy.
From August 2 to 5 1964, race riots occurred in the predominantly African American neighborhood of Lafayette in the Bergen-Lafaytte section of the city. The riots began on August 2 when a young black woman, Delores Shannon, was arrested for disorderly conduct and Arthur Mays, brother of future Olympian, city councilman and state assemblyman, Charles Mays, was arrested for intervening at the Lafayette Gardens public housing complex. Clashes between police and black residents occurred over the next three days. On August 3, mayor Thomas J. Whelan met with local leaders and clergymen and the leadership of the Congress of Racial Equality and the NAACP to discuss how to address the inequities in the African American community and how to end the civil unrest. By the end of the riots on August 5, at least 46 people had been injured, 52 people were arrested and 71 stores and businesses were damaged.
thumb|right|World Trade Center from the intersection of Grove St. and Grand St. in 1978
By the 1970s, Jersey City was in a period of urban decline spurred on by deindustrialization. Many of its former industrial anchors relocated or declared bankruptcy which led many of the city's wealthy residents to leave for the suburbs due to rising crime, civil unrest, political corruption, and economic hardship. From 1950 to 1980, Jersey City lost 75,000 residents, and from 1975 to 1982, the city lost 5,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce.
In 1974, Hudson County Community College was established in Journal Square as one of two "contract" colleges in the United States and the first contract college in New Jersey to grant students occupational and career-oriented certificates and Associates in Applied Science degrees. Since then, the college has grown throughout the Journal Square and Bergen Square neighborhoods.
On Feb. 19, 1974, the city council voted 8–1 to repeal a 40-year-old law that banned women from drinking at bars and working as bartenders. It was signed into law in 1934 by mayor Frank Hague when the end of Prohibition led to new alcohol regulations. The law stated that "no women to be served in a barroom" and "no female bartenders." Jersey City councilwoman Lois Shaw launched the movement for repeal when she and a group of women ordered a round of drinks to "liberate" the Majestic Tavern across the street from City Hall.
On Flag Day 1976, Liberty State Park opened on New York Harbor to coincide with the nation's bicentennial. At with a two-mile waterfront walkway, it is the largest park in Jersey City and the largest urban park in New Jersey. The park was built on the site of the former railyards of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad. The idea for the park dated back to the late 1950s and its creation was advocated for and spearheaded by several Jersey City residents: Audrey Zapp, Theodore Conrad, Morris Pesin and J. Owen Grundy. Jersey City donated of land to the development of the park through their advocacy. The Liberty Science Center opened in the park in 1993.
Late 20th and early 21st centuries
thumb|left|Newport section of the Jersey City skyline along the Hudson River
Beginning in the 1980s, the restoration of brownstones in neighborhoods such as Paulus Hook, Van Vorst Park, Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove and Bergen Hill, along with artists repurposing warehouses in the Powerhouse Arts District and redevelopment of the waterfront previously occupied by railyards, factories and warehouses helped spark Jersey City's economic renaissance. From 1995 to 2003, Jersey City led the 100 largest cities in the United States in job growth and poverty reduction. The rapid construction of numerous high-rise buildings, such as the mixed-use community of Newport, increased the population and led to the development of the Exchange Place financial district, also known as "Wall Street West", one of the largest financial centers in the United States. Financial institutions such as UBS, Goldman Sachs, Chase Bank, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch occupy prominent buildings on the Jersey City waterfront, some of which are among the tallest buildings in New Jersey. With of office space as of 2011, Jersey City has the nation's 12th-largest downtown and the state's largest office market.
Since 1988, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has mandated by law that developers building along the waterfront in Hudson County preserve and develop the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway to provide the public with access and recreation by creating a linear park along the Hudson River. The walkway through Jersey City is substantially complete and runs from Hoboken Terminal through Liberty State Park to Port Liberté.
Simultaneous to this building boom, new transit projects were prioritized. By the late 1980s, trans-Hudson ferry service was restored along the waterfront by NY Waterway with ferry terminals now at Paulus Hook, Liberty Harbor and Port Liberté. From 1996 to 2011, NJ Transit constructed the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail as one of the largest public works projects in state history. The system was developed and extended throughout the city and its Downtown utilizing the former right-of-ways of the railroads that defined the city and county during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The system links Jersey City with its neighboring cities while connecting to several NJ Transit bus lines, PATH stations and ferry terminals.
September 11, 2001
thumb|right|Panel S-29 on the South Pool of the [[National September 11 Memorial & Museum|National 9/11 Memorial honors the JCFD.]]
Jersey City was directly affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center where 38 city residents lost their lives. One of the 38 victims was Joseph Lovero, a Jersey City Fire Department dispatcher, who was killed by a piece of falling debris while responding. The Jersey City Fire Department was the only New Jersey fire department to receive an official call for assistance from the FDNY. Following the attacks, the Jersey City waterfront became the largest triage center in the area for survivors escaping Lower Manhattan by ferry during the "9/11 Boatlift". In the days and weeks after, Jersey City became a staging area for rescue and aid workers headed to "Ground Zero" for rescue and recovery efforts. The collapse of the Twin Towers destroyed the World Trade Center PATH station and the firefighting efforts flooded the Downtown Hudson River tunnels and the Exchange Place PATH station severing the rail connection between Jersey City and Lower Manhattan until 2003. Over the years several memorials have been erected along the waterfront including the Jersey City 9/11 Memorial and the official New Jersey state memorial Empty Sky.
On November 19, 2015, while campaigning for president in Birmingham, Alabama, Donald Trump falsely claimed a conspiracy theory that he witnessed "thousands of people" celebrating the attacks in Jersey City on television. Trump continued to repeat the conspiracy theory to multiple news outlets for weeks, later adding that the people were Muslims, despite no confirmed reports, evidence or footage from that time being found to confirm his repeated falsehood. In response, the Jersey City council proposed a measure to persuade the condo association at Trump Plaza Jersey City to remove Trump's name off of the building marquee. Both Trump Plaza and Trump Bay Street were later renamed in 2020.
2010s–present
In August 2011, several areas of Downtown Jersey City and the waterfront were affected by Hurricane Irene causing severe flooding from the associated storm surge.
Over a year later, Jersey City was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 with extended power outages for multiple days, severe wind damage in several neighborhoods and extensive storm surge flooding throughout the city especially in Downtown, the Country Village neighborhood, the West Side and Liberty State Park. The flooding damaged the city's utility infrastructure and led to a days long shutdown of the PATH system, both of its Hudson River tunnels and the Holland Tunnel. For weeks after, the Jersey City Armory served as an emergency shelter for hundreds of displaced city residents. Prior to the storm, homeless individuals went to the armory for refuge. The 108th Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst provided services such as sleeping cots, shower locations, food and security.
In October 2013, City Ordinance 13.097 passed requiring employers with ten or more employees to offer up to five paid sick days a year. The bill impacts an estimated 30,000 workers at all businesses who employ workers who work at least 80 hours a calendar year in Jersey City. The passage of the ordinance made Jersey City the first municipality in New Jersey and the sixth in the United States to guarantee paid sick leave.
In 2014, Jersey City's Census-estimated population was 262,146, with the largest population increase of any municipality in New Jersey since 2010, representing an increase of 5.9% from the 2010 U.S. census, when the city's population was 247,597.
In 2016, Jersey City raised the minimum wage for its municipal employees to US$15 per hour, double the previous rate, becoming the first municipality in New Jersey to do so. The city's new minimum wage made it several dollars higher than the State ($12 per hour) and Federal ($11 per hour) minimum wages. In 2021, the city raised the minimum wage further to $17 per hour and again in 2022 to $20 per hour.
From 2018 to 2023, Jersey City built a new municipal complex called Jackson Square in the Jackson Hill section of the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood. Planned since 2014, the city had previously rented office space throughout the city for its multiple agencies. The complex is made up of a City Hall Annex for several agencies, parking garage and public safety headquarters for the Jersey City Police and Fire Departments. The shooting was part of a wave of violent attacks against Jews in the United States in 2019.
COVID-19 pandemic
On March 13, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Jersey City. The day before, Jersey City was the first city in the state to implement mandatory restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. These restrictions included a nightly curfew on city bars and restaurants and the cancellation of all public meetings, non-essential city-sponsored events and private events held on city property. With its population density and connections to New York City, by early April, Jersey City became the state epicenter for the virus having more cases than any other municipality in New Jersey. Through March 2023, Jersey City recorded 320 deaths, or 120.5 people for every 100,000 residents, from COVID-19 related complications. In April 2023, Jersey City Medical Center dedicated a public serenity garden and stained glass artwork titled Healing and Hope to honor the hospital's COVID-19 emergency response, front line workers and those who died from the pandemic.
Geography
thumb|Satellite view of Jersey City
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County and the second-most-populous city in New Jersey.
The city is bordered to the east across the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay by Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York State, to the north by Secaucus, North Bergen, Union City and Hoboken, to the west across the Hackensack River and Newark Bay by Kearny and Newark, and to the south by Bayonne.
Jersey City includes most of Ellis Island (the parts awarded to New Jersey by the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court in the case of New Jersey v. New York). Liberty Island is surrounded by Jersey City waters in the Upper New York Bay. Given its proximity and various mass transit connections to Manhattan, Jersey City (along with Hudson County as a whole) is sometimes referred to as New York City's sixth borough.
thumb|upright|Map of Jersey City area, from [[United States Geological Survey (USGS)]]
Jersey City (and most of Hudson County) is located on the peninsula known as Bergen Neck, with a waterfront on the east at the Hudson River and New York Bay and on the west at the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. Its north–south axis corresponds with the ridge of Bergen Hill, the emergence of the Hudson Palisades. The city is the site of some of the earliest European settlements in North America, which grew into each other rather than expanding from a central point. This growth and the topography greatly influenced the development of the sections of the city and its various neighborhoods.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Jersey City has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) closely bordering on a humid continental climate (Dfa) similar to its parallel cities like Newark and New York City. With partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean, the climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally cool to cold winters with moderate snowfall. Jersey City lies in the USDA plant hardiness zone 7b.
Neighborhoods
The city is divided into six wards. The former Jersey City Medical Center complex, a cluster of Art Deco buildings on a rise in the center of the city, has been converted into residential complexes called The Beacon. Completed in 2016 at a cost of $38 million, (~$ in ) Berry Lane Park is located along Garfield Avenue in the northern section of Bergen-Lafayette; covering , it is the largest municipal park in Jersey City. The Jersey City Municipal Complex opened in phases at Jackson Square in the Jackson Hill neighborhood from 2018 to 2023.
Downtown Jersey City
Downtown Jersey City is the area from the Hudson River westward to the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 78) and the New Jersey Palisades; it is also bounded by Hoboken to the north and Liberty State Park to the south.
thumb|right|Brownstones in Van Vorst Park neighborhood
Historic Downtown is an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront that is highly desirable due to its proximity to local amenities and Manhattan. It includes the neighborhoods of Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park, which are both square parks surrounded by brownstones. This historic downtown also includes Paulus Hook, the Village and Harsimus Cove neighborhoods. Newark Avenue & Grove Street, are the main thoroughfares in Downtown Jersey City, both have seen a lot of development and the surrounding neighborhoods have many stores and restaurants. The Grove Street PATH station has been renovated and made fully ADA compliant. and a number of new residential buildings are being built around the stop, including a 50-story building at 90 Columbus. Historic Downtown is home to many cultural attractions including the Jersey City Museum, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse (planned to become a museum and artist housing), which gives its name to the Powerhouse Arts Warehouse District, and the Harsimus Stem Embankment along Sixth Street, which a citizens' movement is working to turn into public parkland that would be modeled after the High Line in Manhattan.
Newport and Exchange Place are redeveloped waterfront areas consisting mostly of residential towers, hotels and office buildings that are among the tallest buildings in the city. Newport is a planned mixed-use community, built on the old Erie Lackawanna Railway yards, made up of residential rental towers, condominiums, office buildings, a marina, schools, restaurants, hotels, Newport Centre Mall, a waterfront walkway, transportation facilities, and on-site parking for more than 15,000 vehicles. Newport had a hand in the renaissance of Jersey City although, before ground was broken, much of the downtown area had already begun a steady climb (much like Hoboken).
The Heights
thumb|[[Pershing Field entrance in The Heights]]
The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a district in the north end of Jersey City atop the New Jersey Palisades overlooking Hoboken to the east and Croxton in the Meadowlands to the west. Previously the city of Hudson City, The Heights was incorporated into Jersey City in 1869.
Journal Square
thumb|Journal Square residential towers in 2024
Journal Square is a mixed-use central business district. The square was created in 1923, creating a broad intersection with Hudson Boulevard which itself had been widened in 1908. Other major squares in the neighborhood are Bergen Square, India Square and Five Corners. McGinley Square is located in close proximity to Journal Square, and is considered an extension of it. The Journal Square Transportation Center is a major multi-modal transportation hub with a NJ Transit bus terminal and PATH station. It also houses the PATH Operations Center and a multilevel retail plaza. Hudson County Community College is located throughout the neighborhood. Journal Square is currently undergoing a massive wave of economic growth and development not seen since the neighborhood was first established with more than 4,400 residential units under construction.
Greenville
Greenville is on the south end of Jersey City. In the 2010s, the neighborhood underwent a revitalization. Considered an affordable neighborhood in the New York City area, a number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews and young families purchased homes and built a substantial community there, attracted by housing that costs less than half of comparable homes in New York City. In a December 2019 shooting incident, three bystanders were killed in a kosher market in Greenville. The two assailants, who had earlier killed a police detective, were also shot and killed.
West Side
The West Side borders Greenville to the south and the Hackensack River to the west; it is also bounded to the east and north by Bergen-Lafayette and the broader Journal Square area, including McGinley Square. It consists of various diverse areas on both sides of West Side Avenue, one of Jersey City's leading shopping streets. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail's (HBLR) West Side Avenue station serves the shopping district and surrounding neighborhood. The West Side is the home of New Jersey City University and Saint Peter's University. The Bayfront project is a planned mixed-use development and community on a remediated former industrial brownfield site on the Hackensack River. When complete, it will feature 8,000 new housing units with 35% deemed affordable, of open space, a new school, firehouse and a new HBLR station.