New Jersey Treasure - From First Base to First Road

From sporting good times at the baseball field to the American Revolution itself, the Garden State is the birthplace of many of our nation's firsts. New Jersey played a central role in the creation of not only our country, but also many of America's noteworthy contributions—including Monopoly, cheerleading, and more! From the nation's oldest highway to quirky aspects like prohibiting self-service gas, New Jersey is definitely a jack of all trades and master of quite a few. Read on to learn how this state swung for the fences and hit a home run, right from the start!

Though the exact origins of baseball aren't certain, there are many derivatives of the game involving a bat and a ball, tracing as far back as Ancient Egypt 2000 years ago. Similar games appeared in England in the 14th century, such as Rounders and Cricket. In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, written in the 1790s and published in 1818, a character is described as preferring "baseball riding on horseback," and a German author, Johann Gutsmuths, wrote a book in which he describes "English Baseball" as a popular pastime in 1796. However, these versions of baseball do not line up with the game we know in America today, and in fact, are now referred to as "British Baseball."

Though there is dispute and conflicting arguments about who is the real inventor of Baseball, the credit is given to Alexander Cartwright. After establishing the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York and starting The Knickerbockers team in 1839, he's also known for writing down the rules for the game in 1845. One year later, he organized the first official game of baseball held in the US, right in Hoboken, New Jersey. The game captured the attention of the public and began to spread across the country and the world, greatly in part due to Henry Chadwick who would write and publish articles on the games he watched. Both Alexander Cartwright and Henry Chadwick were elected into the Hall of Fame in 1938.

The game itself was so monumental that it served as the content of one of Edison's first ever moving pictures, filmed in Newark, New Jersey. The film captures a snippet of a game between the Newark Colts and the Reading Coal Heavers, in 1898.

U.S. Route 206 and New Jersey State Highway 27 (Maxwell Collection, Rubenstein Library, Duke University)

Before the American Revolution, King Charles II of England ordered the construction of a 1,300-mile-long road, the King's Highway. This road ran through New Jersey and was built between 1650 and 1735, eventually spreading from Massachusetts to South Carolina, connecting the king's ten colonies. Though it was initially used by post riders to deliver mail, it eventually expanded to carry stagecoaches and horse-drawn wagons. The road was nicknamed The Upper Road to differentiate it from The Lower Road, which ran further southeast. In 1744, The Upper Road was described as "12 miles of a very pleasant road" by Swedish traveler and naturalist Peter Kalm, and it was well traveled for the following century, being the main route between New York City and Philadelphia. By the 19th century, King's Highway was mostly replaced with Route 1 and Route 206 — though not all of our modern highways directly lay over King's Highway, the areas that are known as The King's Highway Historic District have been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Jack Boucher/Wikipedia

The King's Highway ended up being a part of the beginnings of our interstate system. Today New Jersey has ten major Interstate highways, though as one of the most densely populated states in the country, congestion is a well-known issue. The longest Interstate is I-95, in New Jersey and in the nation—which you can read more about here. The shortest is I-278, running for just two miles.

The Garden State isn't just home to the first baseball game and the first road: it's a state FULL of firsts! Princeton started cheerleading in 1869. Atlantic City not only lent its street names to the birth of the board game Monopoly, but also hosted the first Miss America pageant on the boardwalk in 1921. Along with being central to the American Revolution, hosting more battles than any other state, New Jersey is also the location of the first submarine ride, which took place in the Passaic River. Other things worth mentioning are the historical Lambert Castle that houses a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons. This state is also one of only two in the country where self-service gas is illegal. This one catches travelers by surprise, so if you're filling up in New Jersey, remember to let the attendant do it and don't even think of pumping your own gas.

Whether you're heading to Hoboken to see the site of the first baseball game, are traveling down the historical King's Highway, or heading to Atlantic City to walk down the streets that share their names with your Monopoly board, remember that Interstate Signways made the signs that marked the way!