Editing Bridgeton, New Jersey (section)

==History==
[[File:Potters Tavern.JPG|thumb|Potter's Tavern, built in 1750]]
Similar to other areas near rivers and the bay, this area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. At the time of European contact, [[Lenape]] Native Americans lived in the area. The tribe followed a seasonal pattern of cultivation and hunting and fishing. The state-recognized [[Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians]] of New Jersey maintain a cultural center here, serving a community of 12,000 in Cumberland, [[Gloucester County, New Jersey|Gloucester]] and [[Salem County, New Jersey|Salem]] counties.<ref>Marine, Jaime. [http://www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2010/06/annual_nanticoke_lenni-lenape.html "Annual Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Pow-Wow coming to Salem County Fairgrounds"], ''[[Today's Sunbeam]]'', June 9, 2010. Accessed July 9, 2012. "'The main purpose of the Pow-Wow is to educate the American public about the rich history of the Native Americans,' Gail Gould, of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Office in Bridgeton, said Wednesday. 'It is also like a big family reunion for us.' According to Gould, there are more than 12,000 members of the Lenape tribe throughout Salem, Gloucester and Cumberland counties."</ref>

The first recorded European settlement in what is now Bridgeton was made by 1686 when Richard Hancock established a sawmill here.<ref>[http://www.co.cumberland.nj.us/bridgetonhouseswalkingtour Historic Bridgeton Walking Tour; New Jersey's Largest Historic District], [[Cumberland County, New Jersey]]. Accessed November 8, 2016.</ref> Settlers established a pioneer iron-works in 1814. Bridgeton was incorporated as a [[township (New Jersey)|township]] by an act of the [[New Jersey Legislature]] on March 3, 1845,<ref>{{cite news |title=The History and Statistics of American Water-Works |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMlBAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA5 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |work=Engineering News-record |date=January 7, 1882}}</ref> from portions of [[Deerfield Township, New Jersey|Deerfield Township]]. Bridgeton city was incorporated on March 1, 1865, replacing both Bridgeton Township and [[Cohansey Township, New Jersey|Cohansey Township]].<ref name=Story>Snyder, John P. [https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf ''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968''], Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 119. Accessed July 9, 2012.</ref> The city was named for its location at a bridge on the [[Cohansey River]]<ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=9 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed August 27, 2015.</ref> and is said to be a corruption of "bridge town".<ref>[[Henry Gannett|Gannett, Henry]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA37 ''The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States''], p. 37. [[United States Government Printing Office]], 1905. Accessed August 27, 2015.</ref>

After the [[American Civil War]], Bridgeton's industrial base and commercial centrality in this area of high agricultural production, along with its high profile as an educational center (it was home to the South Jersey Institute, the West Jersey Academy, and two notable academies for women), made it the most prosperous town in the state. Bridgeton was home to glass factories, sewing factories, metal and machine works and other manufacturers, most notably, the Ferracute Machine Works, which was founded and operated by [[Oberlin Smith]], an inventor and philanthropist credited with inventing the first device for magnetic recording, and now in the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.<ref name=NYTSmith>Staff. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/07/22/99997928.pdf "Rites for Oberlin Smith Held."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 22, 1926. Accessed July 8, 2012. "The funeral of Oberlin Smith, Bridgeton's most distinguished citizen and inventor of international note, took place this afternoon from Lockwold, his late residence on the shore of East Lake."</ref>

[[Bridgeton Historic District (Bridgeton, New Jersey)|Bridgeton Historic District]] covers a quarter of the city and includes more than 2,000 properties. These range from the early [[Federal architecture]] to the 1920s, including many structures eligible for individual listing and some documented by the [[Historic American Buildings Survey]] (HABS) during the 1930s. The district was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1982 and is the largest such district of any municipality in New Jersey.<ref>Staff. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AC&p_theme=ac&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=11CC5624B31462B0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Bridgeton Historic District / Managing the past"], ''[[The Press of Atlantic City]]'', November 6, 2007. Accessed July 8, 2012. "Funkhouser's story mirrors the problems facing the entire historic district in Bridgeton. Drawn up in 1982, the district covers almost a quarter of the city and is the largest contiguous historic district in the state."</ref>

Although it is visually dominated by large [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] homes and a downtown area constructed from the 1880s to the 1920s, the district, besides many neighborhoods of gingerbreaded "doubles" that were essentially working-class housing, includes several notable structures dating from the 18th century and early Federal period. One of these is Potter's Tavern, said to have been built in the 1750s, but restored to its appearance in 1776 when it was home to ''The Plain Dealer,'' considered New Jersey's first newspaper.<ref>Arney, Pat. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AC&p_theme=ac&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAEAA5F444A1C74&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Preserving Bridgeton's History / Historical Society Says Potter's Tavern Needs A Lot Of Work"], ''[[The Press of Atlantic City]]'', August 26, 1993. Accessed July 9, 2012. "It was New Jersey's first newspaper. Called the "Plain Dealer," the hand-written paper came out weekly between Dec. 25, 1775, and Feb. 12, 1776, at Potter's Tavern, a gathering spot for the local firebrands that still stands today, across from the Cumberland County Courthouse on West Broad Street."</ref>

A second is Brearley (Masonic) Lodge, founded by General James Giles in 1795, and still active. A third is the so-called "Nail House" ({{circa|1815}}; second build {{circa|1855}}), administrative home of the Cumberland Nail & Iron Works that established Bridgeton's industrial prowess in the early nineteenth century. The first Cumberland National Bank building (1816), which was only the second bank chartered in New Jersey, is now part of the Bridgeton Library.<ref>[http://www.njht.org/dca/njht/funded/sitedetails/cumberlandbank.html Cumberland Bank Building], [[New Jersey Historic Trust]]. Accessed July 9, 2012.</ref> There is also the David Sheppard House (1791), recently restored with assistance from the Garden State Historic Trust and home to the Cousteau Coastal Center of Rutgers University since 2008.<ref name=CousteauCenter>[http://marine.rutgers.edu/pt/bridgeton.html Cousteau Center at Bridgeton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100712173910/http://www.marine.rutgers.edu/pt/bridgeton.html |date=2010-07-12 }}, [[Rutgers University]] Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Accessed July 9, 2012.</ref>

Bridgeton straddles the tidal [[Cohansey River]] and is located near the center of the [[Delaware Bay]] lowlands. It derives its name from the original movable bridge that offered the option of regular overland travel on the "King's Highway" across the Cohansey watershed region for the first time in 1716. The name is believed to have been changed from Bridge-towne to Bridgeton in 1816–1817 due to a printing error on documents published by the Cumberland Bank.<ref>[http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/history.php Our History], City of Bridgeton. Accessed October 28, 2019.</ref>

Bridgeton is home to numerous large municipal parks. The largest of these, consisting of pinelands, wetlands and lakes, as well as the original raceway system that provided waterpower to the mills, was formed out of the property owned and managed by the Cumberland Nail & Iron Works until 1899. Long considered a recreational area for the region even under ownership by the Iron Works, the property was finally purchased in 1902–1903 by the city and preserved in perpetuity as the Bridgeton City Park. It includes three major lakes: Mary Elmer Lake, Sunset Lake, and East Lake.<ref>[http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/visitors.php Parks and Recreation], City of Bridgeton. Accessed November 8, 2016.</ref> Bridgeton Park encompasses about {{convert|1500|acre|km2}}. It now includes the [[Cohanzick Zoo]], New Jersey's oldest zoo, which is free to the public.<ref>[http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/zoo.php Cohanzick Zoo... "New Jersey's First Zoo" ], City of Bridgeton. Accessed November 8, 2016.</ref>

The city suffered an economic downturn in the 1980s with the loss of its remaining manufacturing sector jobs in glass and textiles. Agricultural employment, however, has continued to attract immigrant workers largely from [[Mexico]] but also [[Guatemala]], creating new challenges and opportunities for revitalization. A significant minority of Bridgeton residents and their children speak [[Zapoteco]], either as their only language or alongside Spanish.<ref>[http://www.state.nj.us/education/pr/2013/11/110540030.pdf New Jersey School Performance Reports for the Bridgeton School District], [[New Jersey Department of Education]]. Accessed May 31, 2015.</ref>

Downtown Bridgeton includes an art gallery, second hand stores, a makerspace, and the headquarters of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation.<ref>Zotigh, Dennis. [http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2016/09/meet-native-america-mark-gould.html "Meet Native America: Mark Gould, Chief of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909005816/http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2016/09/meet-native-america-mark-gould.html |date=September 9, 2017 }}, [[National Museum of the American Indian]], September 6, 2016. Accessed October 28, 2019.</ref> The makerspace, called STEAMWorks, was opened as a collaborative project between the city and the local Cumberland County College, run by the college the space offers specialized equipment and software to the public at a membership based pricing system, as well as workshops and a limited set of certification courses, no involvement with the college is required.<ref>[http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/steamworks.php STEAMWorks], City of Bridgeton. Accessed June 9, 2017.</ref>

Bridgeton Main Street declared its downtown a Culinary Arts district and is highlighting downtown activity through the food and cooking-related retail sector. Bridgeton Main Street Association is the oldest Main Street Association in the state, founded in 1990.<ref>Adomaitis, Greg. [http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2012/02/bridgeton_main_street_presiden.html "Bridgeton Main Street president receives inaugural award"], ''[[South Jersey Times]]'', February 2, 2012. Accessed May 31, 2015. "Fellow BMSA members and co-workers turned their attention to their president and member of five years, who leads the oldest Main Street association in the state.... The Main Street effort was instituted nationally around the late-1970s and was officially incorporated here in 1990."</ref>

In 2008, Rutgers opened the Cousteau Coastal Center of its Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences in the former David Sheppard House, a base from which it coordinates cutting-edge ecological research and develops modules for environmental learning at all educational levels from elementary school upward.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20131008012430/http://www.jcnerr.org/bridgeton.html Cousteau Center at Bridgeton]}}, Cousteau Center at Bridgeton. Accessed October 7, 2013.</ref>

[[South Woods State Prison]], which opened near Bridgeton in 1997, is the largest state prison in New Jersey and provides a range of employment.<ref>Barlas, Thomas. [http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/cumberland-county-banking-on-prisons-for-economic-stability/article_e13da05f-ab67-5e47-bc7e-b3279ec994a7.html?TNNoMobile "Cumberland County banking on prisons for economic stability"], ''[[The Press of Atlantic City]]'', July 3, 2013. Accessed October 7, 2013. "Those prisoners - the county will accept between 100 and 350, depending on space - will join thousands of inmates lodged in three state prisons located in Cumberland County. Bayside State Prison and Southern State Correctional Facility in Maurice River Township and South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton house about a third of the more than 23,100 inmates in all of the state's prisons."</ref>

Bridgeton is home to the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, an entry point for startup food manufacturers that allows a new company or entrepreneur to work with a specialized team from Rutgers University to develop, test, brand, and package their product.<ref>[http://foodinnovation.rutgers.edu/incubatordirections.html Driving Directions], Rutgers Food Innovation Center. Accessed June 9, 2017.</ref>