Why Is South/Central Jersey So Relatively Undeveloped?

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Seems to me the reason SW NJ is so relatively rural then is because:

1. Pre WWII/20th century development was dense and concentrated primarily along waterways, ports, and industry.
SWNJ being so flat and aside from the Delaware, lacking rivers, did not have this component. Also, SWNJ is East of Philly, in the lowlands, there is not anything to go to out east which can't be reached by the Delaware Bay. In contrast, Northern NJ is west of NY, connecting the urban core to the inland and coal resources.

2. So, SWNJ to Philly was like LI was to NY, the vacant flat area without rivers or industry east of the city. But, SWNJ did not explode like LI because:
-NY has a lot more people, and a lot less available land given it has so much water in the east.
-SWNJ was the least desirable place to sprawl in Philly given that aside from Camden, the population was located in many areas in PA.
-Philly did not grow like DC or even Boston and NY post WWII, thus the need for housing SE of the city was not there as one might expect.

Correct?

Pretty much. There's never been anything away from the Delaware River to support a big population, no natural resources, no major university to support some knowledge/tech industry, and the Pinelands shut the door to more sprawl.

Long Island is a good analogy but even there, in a much larger metro area, the sprawl only gets out to about 55 miles from Manhattan. There's still development past that on the South Shore but it's all related to the Hamptons which is still mostly seasonal and not within the commuter belt. Also, the East River isn't quite as big as the Delaware but it takes you north to New England and south to NJ/the rest of the east coast. The Erie Canal made all that access more valuable and spawned the massive populations of both Manhattan and Brooklyn ca. 1890 - which was enough to eventually get 9 bridges/tunnels and 9 separate subway crossings built. Also, the terrain to the north/west of NYC made building railroads up that way a lot more expensive. Just look at the LIRR vs. Metro North maps.

[bellmark]

A new angle...

TLDR; Philly started first and there was no bridge until 1922.


Philadelphia had a head start on being the largest city in the area. In south jersey we had Camden.
But there was a huge and dangerous river between the two, and Ben Franklin Bridge didnt come untll 1922

In mid 1800s Philly had 90,000 residents. Camden had 9,000

With that population difference comes more opportunities

So its mid 1800s and 70 years from a bridge connecting the two states (which seems unfathomable in 1840).
If you are looking to establish a new life in the Delaware Valley where do you move to? Philadelphia or Camden?

50 years later in 1890s Philly is approaching 2 mill population. Camden 45,000

Still 35 years till there is a bridge.

So when you want to build a university, or the main line wealthy homes.... do you take a 2 hr ferry trip each way from Philly to Camden/Haddonfield... or do you just build on your PA side of the river?

Then the bridge goes in and the 2.5 mill Philadelphians have no place to dump trash "Hey its an easy ride to jersey now ad they have all this open land. Lets dump it all there"

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by bellmark

A new angle...

TLDR; Philly started first and there was no bridge until 1922.

The big bridge openings were 1896 and 1926.

Another way of looking at it is the Fall Line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlant...oard_Fall_Line

There are lots of cities on or near the Fall Line -
NYC (the Hudson is navigable north to Albany but if you've ever been up that way you can see it cuts through mountains)
Trenton (Scudder's Falls)
Philly (numerous areas of rapids along the Schuylkill)
Baltimore (Jones Falls)
DC (Great Falls/Falls of the Potomac)
Richmond (there are rapids on the James right in downtown Richmond)
Raleigh (Falls Lake/Falls of the Neuse)
Columbia (rapids downtown)

but the only large-ish cities east of the Fall Line have large, natural, deep water ports -
Norfolk (not the biggest metro in the state)
Charleston (only recently the largest metro)
Savannah (dwarfed by Atlanta).

What's east of the Fall Line has only ever really been good for farming (usually very sandy soil), fishing, and timber harvesting.

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

The big bridge openings were 1896 and 1926.

Another way of looking at it is the Fall Line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlant...oard_Fall_Line

There are lots of cities on or near the Fall Line -
NYC (the Hudson is navigable north to Albany but if you've ever been up that way you can see it cuts through mountains)
Trenton (Scudder's Falls)
Philly (numerous areas of rapids along the Schuylkill)
Baltimore (Jones Falls)
DC (Great Falls/Falls of the Potomac)
Richmond (there are rapids on the James right in downtown Richmond)
Raleigh (Falls Lake/Falls of the Neuse)
Columbia (rapids downtown)

but the only large-ish cities east of the Fall Line have large, natural, deep water ports -
Norfolk (not the biggest metro in the state)
Charleston (only recently the largest metro)
Savannah (dwarfed by Atlanta).

What's east of the Fall Line has only ever really been good for farming (usually very sandy soil), fishing, and timber harvesting.

In the case of LI and SJ, east of the fall line lacks e/w rivers.