Northern New Jersey

Northern New Jersey is an area that tends to be overshadowed by neighboring New York City, but the towns and cities that make up this part of the Garden State offer plenty for visitors. It was in the small town of Edison that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and perfected the first practical incandescent light. Located on the Hudson River, due west of the southern end of Manhattan Island, Jersey City is now the second-largest city in New Jersey. Once a strict Puritan settlement, Newark has grown to become the largest city in the state and one of the country’s leading manufacturing cities. The Meadowlands, a multimillion-dollar sports complex, offers horse racing as well as the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. But Northern New Jersey isn’t all about commercial and industrial interests — there are a plethora of lakes, ponds, rivers and freshly stocked trout streams scattered throughout the area’s wooded, scenic northwest corner, too.