NJ Trivia: What Do Monopoly and New Jersey Have in Common?

One of our favorite childhood board games was "Monopoly".

If you look closely at the playing board, you will see all the streets are named after REAL places in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Atlantic City had the first "boardwalk" in the USA, built back in 1870. You can walk on it for 4 1/2 miles!






Other New Jersey Tidbits:
-Lenapes Indians lived here 1,000s(?) of years

-Giovanni da Verrazano, Italian, explored for king of France, one of 1^st Europeans to stop in NJ

-Jersey City was 1^st permanent NJ city in 1660s—Swedish & Dutch settled

-English declared NJ belonged to them, taking it from Dutch

-For over 25 years NJ divided into East Jersey and West Jersey

-1721 William Trent founded “Trent’s Town”—now called “Trenton”

-Trenton played important part during Revolutionary War: NJ was called “Crossroads of Revolution” because 296 battles happened here, more than any other colony

-20 Nov 1789 NJ became first state in Union to ratify Bill of Rights—beginning process of making 1^st 10 amendments to US Constitution

-1800s Cape May oldest seaside resort

-1804 Alexander Hamilton, 1^st secretary of US treasury, and Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson’s VP, had a duel in NJ. Burr had just lost election for governor of NY. They were enemies. Hamilton wouldn’t apologize for bad things he said about Burr so Burr challenged him to duel. Burr shot and killed Hamilton.

-1824 John Stevens of Hoboken invented steam locomotive

-1846: 1^st official baseball game between Knickerbocker Club and NY 9 at Elysian Fields in Hoboken (Knickerbockers won 23-1)

-Hoboken is where Frank Sinatra grew up

-Walt Whitman’s home is museum

-1858 Hadrosaurus foulkii was 1^st dinosaur found in US in Haddonfield, NJ

-1870s saltwater taffy was invented at Jersey shore and 1^st boardwalk built—4.5 miles long

-Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison, holds 1,093 patents including ticker tape machine, phonograph, in 1879 incandescent light bulb, and motion picture camera

-1896 1^st professional basketball game was played at Cadwalader Park in Trenton YMCA vs Brooklyn YMCA (Trenton won 15-1)

-1900 John Holland built 1^st submarine

-Pres Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) is buried in Princeton

-Princeton University is one of 1^st colleges in USA

-1927 “Lucky Lindy” or Charles Lindbergh, resident of NJ, flew his airplane called “Spirit of Saint Louis” from Long Island to Paris

-In 1930s Albert Einstein came from Europe and lived in Princeton

-1930s Les Paul invites one of 1^st electric guitars

-1933 Morristown National Historic Park was 1^st nat’l historic park in USA—where more than 12,000 soldiers slept in bitter cold winter of Revolutionary War

-1933 Richard Hollingshead invented drive in movies

-1937 Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst Naval Air Station

-1961 “Unimate” was 1^st robot to work in General Motors factory in Trenton

-1978 Pine Barrens became 1^st national preserve with over 1 million acres of land

-1995 NJ Devils, state hockey team, won Stanley Cup

-Garden State grows tomatoes, lettuce-escarole, corn, cranberries, and seedless watermelon was 1^st grown in NJ, peaches, blueberries and strawberries, too…honey

-Honey bee is NJ state insect

-State flower is violet

-State tree is red oak

-State animal is horse

-State bird is Eastern goldfinch

-State fruit is blueberry

-State vegetable is Jersey tomato

-State dance is square dance

-Both NJ & NY own some of both Liberty and Ellis Islands

-Meadowlands—NY Jets & NY Giants play football here surrounded by 8,400 acres of wetlands known for bird-watching

-Campbell’s Soup is in Camden

-First seaplane built here and first airmail from NJ to Chicago

-There are more than 600 diners in NJ—most of any place in world

-Invented in Maplewood, NJ—golf tee and ultimate Frisbee

-“Kingda Ka” is tallest steel roller coaster in whole world at 456 feet at Six Flags –it goes 128 miles per hour

-Pharmaceutical companies