Newark is the largest city in New Jersey and lies on Newark Bay, 8 miles west of New York City along the banks of the Passaic River. Settled by Puritans migrating westward from Connecticut in 1666, it was founded as a township in 1693. The town’s economic growth throughout the nineteenth century was due in large part to its early origins as a center for leather manufacturing.

Newark has faced many urban and social challenges. Poor housing, crime, and the movement of whites away to the suburbs increased the city’s proportion of African-Americans, and the city elected its first black mayor in 1970.

With a population of 260,000, this city has the dubious distinction of having a violent crime and car-theft rate that is six times the national average.

Despite the challenges that being in the very center of the nation’s most populated and industrialized region may present, Newark has been experiencing a “renaissance.” Redevelopment of its downtown area has included the impressive Gateway Towers, the state’s largest office complex. Around the city, sites such as St Joseph’s Plaza and the old Gibralter building have been rehabilitated, and small businesses have given their fa\347ades a facelift. Public housing, townhouses, and condos are being built throughout the city, and high-rise buildings from the 1950s and 1960s are being replaced with smaller structures.

Newark can boast 44 parks, including the nation’s two oldest county parks — Branch Brook and Weequahie. Branch Brook Park was founded in 1895 with a 60-acre tract and now comprises 486 acres, providing an array of fishing and boating lakes, baseball diamonds, and even a Gaelic football field.

The Newark Museum is one of the nation’s most beautiful, with 66 galleries housing one of the foremost collections of American art from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It has examples from the Hudson River School. Permanent galleries feature displays from Africa and South America ranging from the Columbian era to the present.

The New Jersey Performing Arts center, on a 12-acre site on the Newark Riverfront, opened in 1997 after a decade of planning. Its Prudential Hall has been acclaimed as one of the world’s great concert halls, with seating for 2,750 people. Designed by architect Barton Myers, it is the focal point of a cultural district intended to stimulate the revitalization of downtown Newark.

Newark’s International Airport is one of the world’s busiest, servicing both the Newark and New York City area. The PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) train provides Newark with non-stop service to Jersey City and onwards under the Hudson River to Manhattan.

By car, Newark is central to both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway.