The New Jersey Side of New York City

Maybe a third of the New York City metropolitan area is actually in New Jersey, and a visit to New York wouldn't be complete without seeing it.

Staten Island looks very different from the rest of New York City. It is one of the five boroughs of New York City and is in New York State, not New Jersey. But in terms of physical geography it is closer to being part of New Jersey. I remember when it's name was Richmond, before the name was changed to Staten Island. This is really the suburbs of the city. It is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. For visitors from the Buffalo area, Staten Island is like the Tonawanda of New York City.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

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If anything is considered as the symbol of America, it is surely the Statue of Liberty. It was a gift from France. Like Staten Island, the Statue of Liberty is considered as being in New York State, even though it is on an island closer to the shore of New Jersey. Some of the views are looking across at the tall buildings of Manhattan.

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Another island, not far from the Statue of Liberty, is Ellis Island. This is where many millions of immigrants entered the United States, when ship was the primary means of transportation and most immigrants came from Europe. But unlike the Statue of Liberty, most of Ellis Island is in New Jersey. Today it is a museum. I came over by ship when I was a young boy but didn't land here, we landed in Montreal.

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New Jersey's most concentrated urban area is actually part of the New York City metropolitan area. It was once America's industrial heartland. The following scenes are in the city of Elizabeth.

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This is Newark, in New Jersey. This is one of the places that led the way in industrializing America. Newark Airport is considered as the third airport of the New York metropolitan area, along with JFK and LaGuardia.

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This is Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark.

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Just opposite Lower Manhattan on the New Jersey side is Jersey City. This is it's Historic Downtown. Remember that the very tall buildings are looking across the Hudson River at Manhattan.

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Further north, this is West New York, but is on the New Jersey Side.

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Paterson was also one of the most important cities in America's early industrial days.

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This suburban neighborhood is in West Orange, New Jersey. The main street, as seen in the first image, is Pleasant Valley Way. This was what the 1967 hit song by the Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was about. The song was named for the road through this neighborhood.

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