NEW JERSEY, popularly known as the "Garden State," is one of the Atlantic coast States of the American Union, lying be tween 41° 21' 22.6" and 38° 55' 4o" N. lat., and 35' and 73° 53' 39" W. longitude. It is bounded, north by the State of New York, east, by the Hudson river, which separates the State from New York, and by the Atlantic ocean; and south and west by the Delaware bay and river, which separate New Jersey from Delaware and Pennsylvania. All the boundaries except the north ern are natural. New Jersey has an extreme length, north and south, of 166 m., an extreme width, east and west, of 57 m. and a total area of 8,224 sq.m., of which 710 sq.m. are water-surface.
South-east of the Kittatinny valley, and parallel with it, lies the second topographic belt, the Highlands. This region embraces an area of 90o sq.m., having a length, north-east to south-west, of 6o m. and a width varying from 9 to 18 miles. It consists of an upland plateau now dissected by streams into a series of ridges.
The average elevation of the Highlands is about i,000 feet. The third belt, called the Triassic Lowland, occupies about one-fifth of the surface of the State. Its north-western border is marked by a line drawn south-west across the State through Pompton, Morristown, Lebanon and Highbridge to the Delaware ; its south eastern border by a line drawn from Woodbridge to Trenton. The surface is irregular, with altitudes ranging from about sea-level to 90o feet. A noteworthy feature of this area is the series of trap rock ridges. The best known of these is the Palisades ridge, or simply the Palisades, which lines the western bank of the Hudson river. The trap extends to the Kill van Kull channel, and includes, among other ridges, the so-called First and Second Watchung (or Orange) mountains west of the group of suburbs known as the "Oranges." South-east of the Triassic Lowland lies the fourth topographic belt, the Coastal Plain, containing an area of 4,400 sq.m., or slightly more than one-half the entire surface of the State. This belt, bordered on the east, south and west by water, is highest near its centre and lowest along its margins. One-third of the Coastal Plain is below so ft. in altitude ; two fif the are between so and 1 oo ft.; and somewhat more than a fourth of the area is over zoo ft. above sea-level. About one eighth of the area consists of tidal marsh, lying chiefly between the long sandy ridges or barrier beaches of the Atlantic coast and the mainland. For the entire State the average elevation is 25o feet.
The four topographic belts of the State correspond very closely to the outcrops of its geological formations; the rocks of the Appalachian belt being of Palaeozoic age; the formation of the Highlands, Archaean ; that of the Triassic Lowland, Triassic; that of the irregular hills of the Coastal Plain, Cretaceous and Tertiary. The great terminal moraine of the glacial epoch crosses the north-east-south-west topographic belts of the State, in an irregular line west and north-west, from Staten Island, N.Y.