Central Jersey, or Central New Jersey, is the middle region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation Central Jersey is a distinct administrativetoponym.[2][3] While New Jersey is often divided into North Jersey and South Jersey, many residents recognize Central Jersey as a distinct third entity.[4] As of the 2020 census, Central Jersey has a population of 3,580,999.
Many descriptions of Central Jersey include Middlesex County, the population center of New Jersey, and tend to include much of nearby Monmouth, Mercer, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties. The inclusion of adjacent areas of Union and Ocean are a source of debate.[5][6][7] In 2015, New Jersey Business magazine defined Central Jersey more narrowly as the five counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset.[8]
In 2022, legislation was proposed in the New Jersey Legislature to establish distinct geographic areas for tourism in the state. Bill A4711 was sponsored by Assemblymembers Roy Freiman, Sadaf Jaffer, and Anthony Verrelli in the New Jersey General Assembly.[9] This included an official designation of the region of Central Jersey, which the legislation defines more broadly as the seven counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset, and Union.[10][11] The New Jersey Senate version of this legislation passed by a vote of 36-1 on June 20, 2023.[12] On August 24, 2023, Gov. Murphy signed legislation officially designating Central Jersey including, at a minimum, the counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset.[13]
Trenton, the seat of Mercer County and the state capital of New Jersey, is located in the region. New Jersey's geographic center is in Hamilton Township in Mercer County. In 2011, the population center of the state was in the western portion of East Brunswick.[15]
The telephone area codes 732 and 848 includes Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset, Union, and northern Ocean counties. While area codes 609 and 640 includes southern Ocean, Hunterdon, and Somerset counties, as well as Mercer County.[27]
The since discarded regions of West New Jersey (in yellow) and East New Jersey (in green) that existed from 1674 to 1702 during the colonial era of New Jersey; the map also indicates location of the Keith Line (in red) and the Coxe and Barclay Line (in orange).
Between 1674 and 1702, in the early part of New Jersey's colonial period, the border between West Jersey and East Jersey ran diagonally across the middle part of the state. The Keith Line, as the demarcation is known, ran through the center of what is now Mercer County.[28] This border remained important in determining ownership and political boundaries until 1745. Remnants of that division are seen today, notably as the Hunterdon-Somerset, Ocean-Burlington, and Monmouth-Burlington county lines.[29] The division of the two provinces was cultural as well as geographical.[30]
New Jersey's position between the major cities of New York and Philadelphia led Benjamin Franklin to call the state "a barrel tapped at both ends".[31][32] Travel between the two cities originally included a ferry crossing.
For decades, Central Jersey was a hub for manufacturing in the eastern United States. Many industrial companies had major production facilities in and around the area, including Edison Assembly, Ford Motor Company's production plant for Rangers, Mustangs, Pintos, Mercurys, and Lincolns. Other notable companies include General Motors in Linden, Frigidaire's air-conditioner plant in Edison, Hess Corporation in Woodbridge, Siemens in Edison, and ExxonMobil Chemical.
Starting in the 2000s, manufacturing began to leave Central Jersey, and many facilities had closed and moved overseas.[37][38][39][40]
Depending on the location, different parts of Central Jersey fall into overlapping spheres of influence from New York media market and Philadelphia media market. Mercer County is located in the Philadelphia television market, while the rest of the region belongs wholly to the New York City market.
The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, is the largest circulated newspaper in New Jersey. Four Central Jersey newspapers, Asbury Park Press, Home News Tribune, and two Trenton dailies, The Trentonian and The Times and several local papers are published in Central Jersey. New Jersey On-Line, MyCentralJersey.com and CentralJersey.com[55] are online news services. During statewide political events like Gubernatorial or Senatorial election debates often held in Trenton, partner stations from both the New York and Philadelphia markets pool resources together to co-host the events and bring them to New Jersey homes.
Identification with sports teams is also affected by the region's location, and it is not uncommon to find fans of major sports teams of either city. For example, while residents of northern New Jersey root for New York teams, those in the southern part of the state root for Philadelphia teams.[56][57][58] The distinction is less clear in Central Jersey.[59]Central Jersey Riptide was a short-lived professional soccer club.[60]
Transportation
Interstate 195, which travels from the state capital of Trenton to the Jersey Shore, is sometimes referred to as the Central Jersey Expressway.
The Route 9 BBS, the New Brunswick BRT, and the Central Jersey Route 1 Corridor are projects in the region intended to expand the use of bus rapid transit in New Jersey.
Central New Jersey, particularly Edison and surrounding Middlesex County, is prominently known for its significant concentration of Asian Indians. The world's largest Hindu temple was inaugurated in Robbinsville in 2014, a BAPS temple.[64] The growing Little India is a South Asian-focused commercial strip in Middlesex County, the U.S. county with the highest concentration of Asian Indians, at nearly 20% as of 2020.[65][66][67] The Oak Tree Road strip runs for about one-and-a-half miles through Edison and neighboring Iselin in Woodbridge Township, near the area's sprawling Chinatown and Koreatown, running along New Jersey Route 27.[68] It is the largest and most diverse South Asian cultural hub in the United States.[69][70]Monroe Township (nicknamed Edison South), in Middlesex County, has experienced a particularly rapid growth rate in its Indian American population, with an estimated 5,943 (13.6%) as of 2017,[71] which was 23 times the 256 (0.9%) counted as of the 2000 Census; and Diwali is celebrated by the township as a Hindu holiday. Carteret's PunjabiSikh community, variously estimated at upwards of 3,000, constitutes the largest concentration of Sikhs in the state.[72] In Middlesex County, election ballots are printed in English, Spanish, Gujarati, Hindi, and Punjabi.[73]
Indian pharmaceutical and technology companies are coming to Central New Jersey to gain a foothold in the United States. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, based in Hyderabad, set up its U.S. headquarters in Princeton, Mercer County.[74] Pharmaceutical company Aurobindo, also headquartered in Hyderabad, has established its U.S. headquarters in the Dayton section of South Brunswick, Middlesex County, and has implemented a multimillion-dollar expansion of these Central New Jersey operations.[75] In March 2023, Bengaluru-based technology services and consulting company Wipro opened its American international headquarters in East Brunswick, Middlesex, County.[76]
Starting in the 2000s, highly educated suburbs in northern and central New Jersey, have received a large influx of Taiwanese immigrants. Many Taiwanese American families send their children to Mandarin language schools in Edison. Some of these private schools include Edison Chinese School, located at John Adams Middle School, or Tzu Chi, located at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, both of which teach in Traditional Chinese. The Taiwanese airline China Airlines provides private bus service to John F. Kennedy International Airport from the Kam Man Food location in Edison to feed its flight to Taipei, Taiwan.[79]
^Jean Mikle (March 31, 2008). "An invisible boundary divides N.J."Home News Tribune. Archived from the original on January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2010.("Of course, part of the problem with understanding New Jersey's enduring regional tension is that few residents can agree on where the northern half of the state ends and the southern half begins.")
^Saliba, George N. "Central New Jersey’s Success The low-down on economic developments within this five-county region.", New Jersey Business, March 16, 2015. Accessed December 4, 2019. "While New Jersey’s onerous tax structure and an uncertain economic climate have often been headline news, perhaps unsung is the fact that portions of the Garden State are steadily thriving, including much of Central New Jersey, which is comprised of: Somerset County, Monmouth County, Mercer County, Hunterdon County and Middlesex County."
^New Jersey Legislature. Bill A4711 Session 2022 - 2023], New Jersey Legislature, introduced October 11, 2022. Accessed February 18, 2023. "The Division of Travel and Tourism shall re-draw the State tourism map to create a 'Central Jersey' region comprised, at a minimum of the counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset, and to incorporate the 'Central Jersey' region in all regional marketing activities, including in publications and on the VisitNJ.org website."
^Stirling, Stephen (March 31, 2011). "U.S. Census shows East Brunswick as statistical center of N.J."The Star-Ledger. Retrieved November 7, 2012. if all 8.8 million residents of the state were to stand on a giant table supported by a single leg, Nenninger Lane would be the fulcrum point keeping it balanced
^Fairall, Herbert (1885). The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans, 1884-1885. p. 225. Google Book Search. Retrieved on December 4, 2009. "Dr. Benjamin Franklin once perpetrated the witticism 'that New Jersey was like a beer barrel tapped at both ends, with all the live beer running into Philadelphia and New York.'"
^Soderlund, Jean R. (October 15, 1996). Wacker, Peter O.; Clemens, Paul G. E. (eds.). ""A Barrel Tapped at Both Ends": New Jersey and Economic Development". Reviews in American History. 24 (4): 574–578. doi:10.1353/rah.1996.0107. JSTOR30030707. S2CID143847945.
^A wet day in the Hub City, Home News Tribune, September 23, 1999. "A few days short of 60 years, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, a dreary, drizzly day just ahead of the deluge of Hurricane Floyd, the Home News Tribune sent 24 reporters, 9 photographers and one artist into the Hub City, as it is known, to take a peek into life in New Brunswick as it is in 1999."
^"Excerpt from New Book: The Medical Science of House, M.D. Holtz, Andrew". Oncology Times. 28 (20): 50–52, 54–55, 58. October 25, 2006. doi:10.1097/01.COT.0000295295.97642.ae.
^Reiss, Fraidy. "Feeling adventurous?", Asbury Park Press, March 31, 2007, accessed April 18, 2007. "Elsewhere in the park, Kingda Ka looms 456 feet high. It remains the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, said park president Kane."
^[1]. American Revolution Destinations in Central & Southern New Jersey. Accessed January 17, 2022.
^[2]. New Jersey and the Revolution. Accessed January 17, 2022.
^Staff. "Patriotic Reading Again Saves Site", The New York Times, July 4, 1970. "Middlebrook Heights, N. J., July 3 (UPI) A reading of the Declaration of Independence tomorrow will preserve for another year the historic campsite here where George Washington is believed to have first flown the 13-star flag officially before his troops."
^Stephen Stirling (August 3, 2017). "10 ways Lakewood is unlike anywhere else in N.J." NJ Advance Media. Retrieved April 19, 2019. The sea change can be pinned to one event: The founding of the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva in the mid-20th century. The Orthodox Jewish community has set down roots en masse around the religious school, which is now the largest yeshiva in North America.
![With 15 travel lanes and six shoulder lanes, Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway in Central Jersey is one of the world's widest and busiest motor vehicle bridges; the bridge crosses Raritan River near Raritan Bay.[1]](/en/File:Driscoll-Viesser-Edison_Bridges_-_August_30,_2020.jpg)
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