Jersey City, NJ

Jersey City is a city located in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 59,597. Jersey City is the most populous city in Hudson County and the second most populous city in New Jersey after Newark. The Port of New York and New Jersey is located on Newark Bay just across from downtown Jersey City.

The first Europeans to explore the area that would become Jersey City were the Dutch in 1609. The British acquired what are now Hudson County and the adjacent lower Manhattan Township from the Dutch in 1664 as part of their acquisition of North America known as The Purchase of Manhattan. In 1784, Governor George Clinton signed an act that established a township called Liberty Township to be formed out of portions of Bergen and Passaic Townships; this township included what would become downtown Jersey City and parts of present-day Union City, West New York and Guttenberg. Liberty Township was renamed Hudson Township on February 2, 1798 by Governor George Clinton after his predecessor William Livingston had recommended naming it for General Henry Hudson who explored North America for England during the late 1600s. On February 7, 1839, portions of what had been Liberty Township were annexed by Newark to form present-day Downtown Jersey City; this annexation created a conflict between residents who wanted their town to remain independent (as it had been since its establishment) versus those who wanted it annexed into Newark so they could have access to better services such as schools and hospitals which were available only through Newark at that time. As a result of this conflict, on April 11, 1839 residents voted 248–183 in favor of seceding from Hudson Township and becoming an independent municipality; this resulted in the establishment of Downtown Jersey City as an independent municipality on April 12th with John Stevens serving as its first mayor.

Downtown Jersey City experienced rapid growth beginning in the early 1900s due to its location near both railroads (the Erie Railroad ran through downtown along Broad Street while PATH trains ran through Journal Square) as well as major highways such as Route 1 (the Lincoln Tunnel). This growth led to problems with overcrowding which was exacerbated by World War II when many workers left for war zones such as Europe; by 1950 Downtown Jersey City's population had grown to over 100,000 people which led to calls for new development outside Downtown including projects like Kennedy Boulevard which would later become part of Journal Square Park. Despite these efforts however Downtown continued to grow leading up until around 1990 when development began slowing down due to increased regulation from various government agencies such as HUD (Department Of Housing And Urban Development) which was enacted following concerns about rampant gentrification; since then however there has been renewed interest in developing Downtown including projects like Journal Squared which will include residential towers along with retail space and office space.