Proudly bearing the motto “liberty and prosperity” and named after the Channel Island of Jersey, the US state of New Jersey is one of the key commerce hubs in the East. Ideal geographical links to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. have made it a manufacturing, trade and industry giant. While New Jersey is only the fourth-smallest state, it has since become the most densely populated and second wealthiest.
The history of industrial success there is rich indeed as its ultra-modern factories cemented America’s place in the Industrial Revolution. With the visionary thinking of Alexander Hamilton, Paterson, NJ became the first planned industrial city where he harnessed the Great Falls’ water power at volumes great enough to drive immense production.
From there, New Jersey’s name as a production giant grew and grew, leading the way with cotton mills that later developed into a massive textile industry. Workers’ rights also began to develop very early beginnings here as production culture and organization began to take form.
Of course, with industry comes innovation as the two go hand-in-hand. A young Thomas Edison would develop his light bulb, phonograph and hundreds more patents here in Newark. It led him to create the concept of and establish the first purpose-built invention lab, drawing inventors from all over to discover modern marvels. A century later, Alexander Graham Bell would open many laboratories in New Jersey and further drive invention.
Over the course of New Jersey’s development, it would churn out household products like the band-aid, bubble wrap, air conditioners, LCD, Teflon, Campbell’s soup, the transistor, the bar code and the Ford Mustang - to name just a few.
Bringing us back to the current day, New Jersey has developed into the place to be if you are connected to manufacturing on the East Coast. We got in touch with NA Penn Elcom President Richard Stratford to share the history of Penn here:
“We first opened our doors here in New Jersey way back in 1986, on Lafayette Street, Hawthorne. It was Phil Stratford leading the helm at the time. Then when he made the decision to move across the country to our California location, I took over the responsibility in NJ and soon moved us to a larger facility. As Penn grew, we moved again several times to accommodate the added business. After arriving at Pompton Plains in 1991, we finally settled at our current address in 2011 and built our team up to 15 employees.
NJ is a bustling place to live, with 9 million residents in a state about the size of Wales - most of whom are in the northern part of the state that neighbours New York City. New Jersey is known as the Garden State for the excellent agriculture it has; we grow and export our iconic ‘Jersey Tomatoes’.
Recently we’ve become well known for something else entirely - the TV show Jersey Shore. Our beach line is famous for being some of the finest on the entire East Coast and is home to one of the most expensive sand bars in the USA called Long Beach Island. It’s 18 miles long, a mile wide and only 18 inches above sea level in some spots. Some of the houses here can cost over $10M!”
