The Jersey City: Past and Present website is a digital project of New Jersey City University (NJCU) that was designed to inform its viewers in words and images about Jersey City. The website exemplifies one of the ways that NJCU, Jersey City's only public university, seeks to reach out to the surrounding communities.

In the course of its creation and ongoing development, the JC Past & Present website project has forged new relationships with local organizations, institutions, government agencies, and community groups. The JC Past & Present Website project also demonstrates how NJCU's Internet technology services can benefit both our university and our community by providing easily accessible academic information and electronically published faculty research.

The overall purpose of the project is to produce an encyclopedia-like resource about the history of Jersey City for use by a wide audience of scholars, librarians, teachers, students and the general public with an interest in the city's "past and present." Students and teachers may use the comprehensive electronic resource to bring the history of Jersey City into the classroom via this Internet site.

The origins of New Jersey began in Jersey City, today the state's second largest city. The city ranks among the earliest sites of European settlement in North America along with founding settlements such as Jamestown, Plymouth and New Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century. Jersey City, as well as the state of New Jersey, today can draw upon its long history of over 350 years as contributing to the founding of the American nation in the northeast.

How much do you know about the beginning of this dynamic urban center?

Did you know that New Jersey's oldest continuous school site is located
in Jersey City?

Did you know that the Underground Railroad passed through Jersey City?

Did you know that Mayor Frank Hague is listed among the nation's most powerful political bosses?

Did you know that the Jersey City Railroad Terminal (low located within
Liberty State Park) was the port of entry for millions of immigrants who were processed at Ellis Island?

To discover this unique history of Jersey City, located on the west bank of the Hudson River across from Manhattan, scan the index of over 200 entries and discover the many and varied people, events and developments responsible for the its rich history. The entries are linked to an e-chronology, providing an overview of Jersey City from its colonial settlement to recent waterfront redevelopment into the twenty-first century.

E-mail your comments to. jchistory@njcu.edu