New Jersey

By the end of the 19th century, New Jersey coastline was dotted with thriving amusement parks but are just fond and fading memories today.

The Jersey Shore has always attracted people seeking relief from summer heat and humidity. Long before Europeans came here, the native Lenape clammed, fished, and played games on the beach and in the surf. These original people could scarcely have imagined that, by the end of the 19th century, the 120-mile-long coastline would be filled with amusement parks featuring gentle kiddie car rides, terrifying roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, and fast-food emporiums. James Bradley in Asbury Park and William Sandlass Jr. in Highland Beach created mass entertainment for hundreds of thousands of people. Their seaside recreation centers, along with those in Long Branch, Bradley Beach, Pleasure Bay, and others, endured for years. Sadly, they are now just distant and vanishing memories that are resurrected in this piece.

Discover the hidden history of Hasbrouck Heights with images throughout the centuries and meet the notable figures who called it home.

Hasbrouck Heights highlights the development of an enterprising community located minutes from Manhattan, in Bergen County. The hilltop borough was incorporated in 1894, but it had a role in the Revolution and was part of the early Dutch settlements of the mid-1600s. Now a beautiful tree-lined town, Hasbrouck Heights has been home to celebrities such as Arthur Godfrey, Frank Sinatra, and Jason Biggs.

Michael S. Adelberg brings to life the struggles within Monmouth County, a place that New Jersey governor William Livingston called "the theatre of spoil and destruction."

Like much of New Jersey during the American Revolution, Monmouth County was contested territory in between the great armies. As the Battles of Trenton, Princeton and Bound Brook raged nearby, the people of Monmouth County fought their own internal revolution; Loyalist partisans led insurrections and raids that laid waste to entire neighborhoods. In 1778, General George Washington rallied his Continental army and fought the British within Monmouth's borders, barely holding the field. Monmouth Countians joined the fight and then spent the following weeks caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The remaining war years brought more hardships, as they grappled with a local civil war charged with racial, religious and economic undercurrents - a local civil war that continued long after the Battle of Yorktown supposedly ended hostilities.

An estimated three thousand shipwrecks lie off the coast of New Jersey - but these icy waters hold more mysteries than sunken hulls.

Ancient arrowheads found on the shoreline of Sandy Hook reveal Native American settlement before the land was flooded by melting glaciers. In 1854, 240 passengers of the New Era clipper ship met their fate off Deal Beach. Nobody knows what happened to two hydrogen bombs the United States Air Force lost near Atlantic City in 1957. Lessons from such tragic wrecks and dangerous missteps urged the development of safer ships and the U.S. Coast Guard. Captain Stephen D. Nagiewicz uncovers curious tales of storms, heroism and oddities from New Jersey's maritime past.

Between the Watchung Mountains to the north and the Sourland Mountains to the west lies the fertile valley of the Raritan River.

Stout Dutch, Huguenot, German, Scottish, and English settlers began to cultivate family farms here as early as the 1680s. For almost a hundred years, the tramp of soldiers' feet and sounds of cannons had been unknown, but that was about to change. With its location astride two major routes between New York and Philadelphia, it is little wonder that Somerset County became the ""Crossroads of the Revolution."" A friendly populace and the protection of the mountains made this a safe haven for General Washington's army. His soldiers camped for three winters, including the harshest winter of the Revolution, in Somerset and in the adjacent areas of central New Jersey. Washington spent more time here than any other place during the War for Independence. It was in this historically significant county that the first military academy in the nation was built, the 13-star flag was first flown over American troops after its adoption by Congress, and the ""Regulations for the Infantry of the United States"" was written by General von Steuben.

The remarkable story of the people, places, animals and everything in between that has the Seeing Eye the ultimate success.

The Seeing Eye traces its origin to the trenches and battlefields of World War I, where legions of soldiers were blinded during years of brutal engagements. After the war, Germany trained dogs to guide its blinded veterans. In the late 1920s, a small group of innovators took it upon themselves to teach blind and visually impaired people in North America to use dog guides. The Seeing Eye has since helped thousands to achieve greater independence, dignity, and self-confidence, using specially trained Seeing Eye dogs as their companions.

Using rare photographs and documents, The Seeing Eyedetails this remarkable organization and its pioneers, including German shepherd breeder and Seeing Eye founder Dorothy Harrison Eustis; Morris Frank, the first visually impaired American to learn to use a Seeing Eye dog; and Frank's own dog, Buddy. The story follows the first students as they navigate the busy streets of Nashville, Tennessee, in 1929, and Morris County, New Jersey, where the fledgling organization moved in 1931 and where it continues to operate today.The Seeing Eyedocuments the campuses and the students, as well as the faithful dogs, their care, and their training. The reader will meet the dedicated employees and volunteers who have made the organization possible, as well as the graduates who have gone on to lead successful and fulfilling lives.

Glen Rock, a photographic journey, documents the growth of the community from the late 1880s through the late 1950s. The early strawberry fields, farms, mills, and hotels made way for today's stores and homes. The dirt roads once used by horse and buggy, stagecoach, and bicycle were paved for early automobiles. The original schools became too small to hold the growing number of children, and new schools were built. Glen Rock's leaders created municipal departments, civic organizations, emergency services, businesses, and places of worship. Parades, picnics, and pageants entertained Glen Rockers. Wars and the Great Depression brought citizens together, and residents gathered to help each other and the nation.

Washington Township, Morris County showcases the rich agricultural, industrial, and recreational history of this New Jersey Skylands community.

Washington Township, Morris County is situated on the south branch of the Raritan River. This area was originally home to the Lenni-Lenape tribe. In early 1700s, immigrants came from Germany, Holland, and England to settle the area now known as Schooley's Mountain and Fox Hill. The rich, fertile soil of the south branch of the Raritan River gave them opportunity for successful agricultural endeavors, the main source of livelihood for many generations. Small villages grew to have their own stores, churches, schools, gristmills, and post offices. The introduction of the Jersey Central Railroad in 1876 helped the quarry and iron ore mine industries flourish. Schooley's Mountain was a major resort due to the mineral springs, with visitors such as Ulysses S. Grant and Thomas Edison. In 1974, Schooley's Mountain County Park was opened to provide recreational opportunities to the community.

With nearly two hundred vintage photographs from public and private collections, Belleville offers rare insight into the town's explosive growth.

Brimming with a rich history and local flavor that has gone largely undocumented for more than three hundred years, Belleville began as a small Dutch settlement in the 1670s and has grown into a busy suburb of 32,000 people, located only fifteen miles west of New York City. Situated on the west bank of the Passaic River, early Belleville was a center for early industry and water transportation and is noted as the birthplace of America's industrial revolution. From the legendary secret tunnels running beneath the Dutch Reformed Church to the beauty of Belleville Park, which sits beside one of the largest annual cherry blossom tree displays in the nation, Belleville tells the story of an often forgotten but noteworthy era in the turbulent development of early America. Belleville shows the appeal the bustling town held for many of the nation's most influential figures, including inventor Thomas Edison and famed architect Charles Granville Jones. The town was also a notable stop on Gen. George Washington's retreat from New York City to Philadelphia during the early days of the Revolutionary War.

The Wildwoods are located on an island at the southern end of New Jersey's expansive coastline.

The communities of Wildwood Crest, Holly Beach, Wildwood, and North Wildwood (formerly Anglesea) have been luring visitors and vacationers to their shores for nearly one hundred twenty years with magnificent beaches and the ever popular boardwalks. With more than two hundred vintage postcards, The Wildwoods looks back at the coastal towns in the early 1900s. Glimpse the long-lost natural beauty of Magnolia Lake and the primeval forests that gave Wildwood its name. See commercial fishermen leaving from the beaches of Holly Beach or the docks of Anglesea to practice their livelihood as recreational fishermen head out to sea on crowded party boats for a day of angling. Witness Fourth of July celebrations, baby parades, and automobile and yacht races. Visit the architectural styling of the early homes, churches, and schools, as well as the hotels that once provided accommodations to ever increasing numbers of vacationers.

The stories of the Revolutionary soldiers of Bergen County as told by Revolutionary War expert Tood W. Braisted.

Bergen County saw much of the American Revolution from its own doorstep. Close to British-occupied New York City, this corner of New Jersey was divided by the Revolution. Some people were staunch Loyalists or Patriots, in disagreement with their families and neighbors. Others wavered or remained neutral, while others changed their minds as was expedient. In the end, the years of hostilities led to massive damage and upheaval within the community as men either left home or stayed nearby to fight for or against secession from Great Britain.

Few would imagine that the land currently occupied by the Nature Conservancy's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, or "the Meadows," was once the picturesque Jersey Shore town of South Cape May.

By the early twentieth century, a striking hotel and homes designed by renowned Victorian-era architects dotted the landscape. Residents and visitors alike spotted rumrunners racing across the beachfront during Prohibition and endured World War II with German submarines lurking just offshore. But by 1954, barely a trace of the town remained except for about twenty of the original houses, which were moved a mile away. Join one of the town's last residents, Joseph Burcher, as he chronicles life in South Cape May before the angry Atlantic swallowed this serene town.