Where to Stay in Jersey City, New Jersey

What is Jersey City known for?

Jersey City lines the west bank of the Hudson River, its towers rising directly across the water from Manhattan. The waterfront defines it. Glass high-rises crowd the riverfront around the old rail terminals, while Liberty State Park opens green along the harbour with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island offshore.

The Liberty Science Center draws crowds to the park's edge, and older churches and mills survive in the inland neighbourhoods. Ferries and trains cross the Hudson to Manhattan from the piers of the New Jersey shore.

What are the main landmarks in Jersey City?

Jersey City's landmarks range from the harbour to the old inland streets. Liberty State Park opens along the shore with the Liberty Science Center at its edge, and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island stand offshore in the harbour. Dutch-era heritage survives inland.

The Van Wagenen House and Old Bergen Church recall the earliest settlement, while Grace Church Van Vorst and Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church rise among the brownstones. The Dixon Mills, a converted pencil works, and the Jersey City 9/11 Memorial mark the industrial waterfront.

What is the history of Jersey City?

Jersey City traces its roots to 1609, when Dutch settlers reached the west bank of the Hudson River and founded one of the earliest European settlements on the harbour. The Dutch town of Bergen took hold on the higher ground inland, and its memory survives in the Old Bergen Church and the Van Wagenen House among the later streets. Rail lines and ferries later fixed the city as the great western approach to the harbour.

Terminals crowded the Hudson shore. The waterfront made the modern city. Immigrants poured through the harbour past Ellis Island, and the rail yards, docks, and mills of Jersey City handled the freight and travellers bound for New York.

Industry filled the riverfront with works like the Dixon Mills through the long nineteenth century. In later decades the old terminals gave way to glass towers, and Liberty State Park opened green over the reclaimed rail land by the water. The river, the rails, and the harbour shaped every stage of the city.

Where is Jersey City?

Jersey City occupies a peninsula on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Jersey, between the river and the Hackensack marshes inland. The land is low. A ridge of higher ground runs down the middle of the city, dividing the waterfront flats along the Hudson from the tidal lowlands to the west.

Liberty State Park spreads over reclaimed land along the harbour shore. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island stand out in the water off the southern edge.

What is the climate of Jersey City?

Jersey City has a humid temperate climate, with warm summers and cold winters on the harbour. The Hudson River moderates it. The tidal water and the open harbour temper both the summer heat and the winter cold along the waterfront, though snow and hard freezes still reach the city in the coldest months.

Summers turn warm and humid, cooled at times by sea breezes off the harbour. Storms driven up the coast can bring heavy rain and flooding to the low waterfront ground.

How do you get to Jersey City?

Jersey City sits at the harbour crossings into New York, one of the busiest transport gateways on the Hudson River. Trains run under the water. Rail tunnels and ferries carry commuters across the Hudson to Manhattan in minutes, while the turnpikes and interstates of New Jersey meet just west of the city near the marshes.

Light rail runs along the waterfront linking the riverfront districts and Liberty State Park. The nearby international airport lies a short run to the south across the New Jersey lowlands.