One of the thirteen original colonies, the state of New Jersey is a study in contrasts. It is both the Garden State, home to the Rutgers tomato, but also the birthplace of the nation’s first industrial complex, Alexander Hamilton’s Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures. The onetime industrial behemoths, from Paterson in the north to Camden in the south, give way to legendary resort towns along the coast like Ocean City and Cape May. Baby Parades that began at Asbury Park still delight New Jerseyans, where once the Lindbergh kidnapping at Hopewell engendered grief. In 1877, Menlo Park became the birthplace of Edison’s phonograph, and in 1938 Orson Welles would use a radio broadcast to bring an imaginary invasion of Martians to Grover’s Mill.
