GARDEN STATE

New Jersey’s Firsts

Did you know that…

• The first highway traffic circle opened in 1927 at the junction of Route 30, Route 38, and Route 130. The Pennsauken Circle was more commonly known as the Airport Circle.
• The first practical incandescent electric lamp was perfected, one mile from our offices.
• Edison invented the phonograph and the first motion picture camera picture and projector.
• One-quarter of the country’s destroyers were made during World War II.
• The first nearly-complete skeleton of a dinosaur was discovered. This is the discovery that scientifically proved that dinosaurs had really existed and began the science of studying dinosaur fossils – modern paleontology.
• Streptomycin was discovered in 1943 .
• In 1918 Marconi’s radio station, the world’s most powerful, was stationed.
• The first balloon flight in America took place in 1793.
• The first ferry service in the United States operated in 1811.
• The first organized baseball game was played on October 31, 1846.
• The first intercollegiate football team was played between Rutgers and Princeton on Nov 6, 1869.
• The first professional basketball game was played in 1896.
• The world’s first belt conveyor to carry ore was built.
• The first submarine was built in 1878.
• The first boardwalk was built in 1879 in Atlantic City.
• The first airplane passenger service was inaugurated on May 3, 1919.
• The World Series live radio broadcast was carried.
• The Miss America pageant first started and is still held.
• The first drive-in movie theater was built in 1933.
• Jackie Robinson broke the organized baseball color line by playing in his first International League game.
• The first coast-to-coast direct distance dialing was inaugurated.
• The first robot used to replace a human worker was used.
• The first nuclear-power commercial ship was launched.
• The first Colt revolver was developed in Paterson in 1836.
• The first log cabin, built in Swedesboro in the 1640s.
• The first steam locomotive built in Hoboken in 1824 by Colonel John Stevens.
• The first road sheet asphalt pavement laid in Newark in 1870.
• The first town to be lighted by electricity was Roselle.
• The first cultivated blueberries in 1916.
• The first brewery in America in 1642.
• The first national historic park created in 1933 in Morristown.
• Is first in average value of farmlands and buildings per acre.