Edison, New Jersey, United States

History | The Edison era | History : 20th century : 21st century | Geography | Asian community | Manufacturing | Corporate presence | Sport | Parks | Colleges | Libraries | Transport : Road | Public transportation | Healthcare | Telecommunications

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Edison is a township located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. Situated in central New Jersey, Edison lies within the core of the state's Raritan Valley region and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. Home to Little India, as of the 2020 United States Census, Edison is the sixth-most populous municipality in New Jersey, having been ranked fifth in 2010.

What is now Edison Township was originally incorporated as Raritan Township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1870, from portions of both Piscataway Township and Woodbridge Township. The township got its original name from the Raritan indigenous people. Portions of the township were taken to form Metuchen on March 20, 1900, and Highland Park on March 15, 1905. The name was officially changed to Edison Township on November 10, 1954, in honour of inventor Thomas Edison, who had his main laboratory in the Menlo Park section of the township.

History The earliest residents of the area were the Raritan people of the Lenape Native Americans, who lived in the area and travelled through it to the shore. In 1646, Chief Matouchin led a group of 1,200 warriors.

Edison Township, comprising former sections of Piscataway and Woodbridge townships, was settled (by Europeans) in the 17th century. The earliest village was Piscatawaytown, which is centered around St. James Church and the Piscatawaytown Common, near the intersection of Plainfield and Woodbridge Avenues in South Edison. The Laing House of Plainfield Plantation (listed on the National Register in 1988), the Benjamin Shotwell House (listed 1987) and the Homestead Farm at Oak Ridge (liste 1995), are buildings from the colonial era included in National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County.

The community was previously known as "Raritan Township", not to be confused with the current-day Raritan Township in Hunterdon County.

The Edison era In 1876, Thomas Edison set up his home and research laboratory in New Jersey on the site of an unsuccessful real estate development in Raritan Township called "Menlo Park", (currently located in Edison State Park). While there he earned the nickname "the Wizard of Menlo Park". Before his death at age 83 in 1931, the prolific inventor amassed a record 1,093 patents for creations including the phonograph, a stock ticker, the motion-picture camera, the incandescent light bulb, a mechanical vote counter, the alkaline storage battery including one for an electric car, and the first commercial electric light.

The Menlo Park lab was significant in that was one of the first laboratories to pursue practical, commercial applications of research. It was in his Menlo Park laboratory that Thomas Edison came up with the phonograph and a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament. Christie Street was the first street in the world to use electric lights for illumination. Edison subsequently left Menlo Park and moved his home and laboratory to West Orange in 1886.

History: 20th century Near Piscatawaytown village, a portion of the township was informally known as "Nixon", after Lewis Nixon, a manufacturer and community leader. Soon after the outbreak of World War I, Nixon established a massive volatile chemicals processing facility there, known as the Nixon Nitration Works. It was the site of the 1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster, a massive explosion and resulting fire that killed 20 people and destroyed several square miles of the township.

In 1954, the township's name was changed to honor inventor Thomas A. Edison. Also on the ballot in 1954 was a failed proposal to change the community's name to Nixon.

In 1959, the Menlo Park Mall, a two-level super regional shopping mall, opened on U.S. Route 1.

History: 21st century Edison has been one of the fastest-growing municipalities in New Jersey. As of the 2000 United States Census, it was the fifth most-populated municipality in the state, after the cities of Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth.

Edison is primarily a middle-class community with more than 75 ethnic communities represented. Edison has a large Jewish community next to Highland Park, with multiple synagogues located in Edison. Edison also has a growing Indian community and a number of temples serving the religious needs of the community. Reflecting the number of Edison's residents from India and China, the township has sister city arrangements with Shijiazhuang, China, and Baroda, India.

Edison was ranked the 28th most-livable small city in the United States by CNN Money magazine, and second in New Jersey in 2006 in Money magazine's "Best Places To Live". In 2008, two years later, Money ranked the township 35th out of the top 100 places to live in the United States. In the 2006 survey of America's Safest Cities, the township was ranked 23rd, out of 371 cities included nationwide, in the 13th annual Morgan Quitno survey. In 2009, Edison was ranked as one of "America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up" by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings focused on low crime, strong schools, green spaces, and abundance of recreational activities. In 2014, parenting.com ranked Edison as the top safest city in America.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 30.69 square miles (79.49ย kmยฒ), including 30.06 square miles (77.86ย kmยฒ) of land and 0.63 square miles (1.63ย kmยฒ) of water (2.05%).

Edison is on the east side of Raritan Valley (a line of communities in central New Jersey), along with Plainfield, and completely surrounds the borough of Metuchen, New Jersey, making it part of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another. The township borders the municipalities of East Brunswick, Highland Park, New Brunswick, Piscataway, Sayreville, South Plainfield and Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County; Clark, Plainfield and Scotch Plains in Union County.

Edison has numerous sections and neighborhoods. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Bonhamtown, Camp Kilmer, Centerville, Clara Barton, Eggert Mills, Greensand, Haven Homes, Lahiere, Lincoln Park, Lindenau, Martins Landing, Menlo Park, Millville, New Dover, New Durham, Nixon, North Edison, Oak Tree, Phoenix, Potters, Pumptown, Raritan Arsenal, Raritan Manor, Sand Hills, Silver Lake, Stelton, Valentine, and Washington Park.

Edison is about halfway between Midtown Manhattan, and New Jersey's capitol, Trenton, being about 27 miles from both.

While the Township's topography is mostly flat, there are some hillier areas, especially along the Perth Amboy Moraine, which forms an arc across the township, left by the southern limit of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The highest point is on Grandview Avenue, which reaches a maximum elevation of about 220 feet. The lowest elevation in the township is on sea level on the Raritan River.

The Robinsons Branch of the Rahway River flows through Edison en route to the Robinson's Branch Reservoir.

Asian community Edison hosts one of the region's main centres of Asian American cultural diversity. The growing Little India is a South Asian-focused commercial strip in Middlesex County, the U.S. county with the highest concentration of Asian Indians. The Oak Tree Road strip runs for about one-and-a-half miles through Edison and neighboring Iselin in Woodbridge Township, near the area's sprawling Chinatown and Koreatown, running along New Jersey Route 27. It is the largest and most diverse South Asian cultural hub in the United States. In Middlesex County, election ballots are printed in English, Spanish, Gujarati, Hindi, and Punjabi. As part of the 2010 Census, 28.3% of Edison residents identified themselves as being Indian American. In the 2000 Census, 17.75% of Edison residents identified themselves as being Indian American, the highest percentage of Indian-American people of any municipality in the United States with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry.

Manufacturing A number of production facilities in and around the area, included Edison Assembly, Ford Motor Company's production plant for Rangers, Mustangs, Pintos, Mercurys, and Lincolns. Other notable companies included Frigidaire's air-conditioner plant in Edison, Siemens in Edison.

Starting in the 2000s, manufacturing began to leave Central Jersey, and many facilities closed and moved overseas. The Ford plant was demolished by 2008 and was replaced by Sam's Club, Topgolf and Starbucks.

Corporate presence Majesco Entertainment, a video game company, has its corporate headquarters in Edison. Other companies have warehouse operations within Edison. These companies include the Italian food producer and importer Colavita, an Amazon fulfillment centre, as well as the regional hubs for FedEx, UPS, and Newegg. In addition Edison is home to the state's largest private convention centre, the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center, located within the Raritan Center Business Park. Raritan Center itself is the largest industrial park on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States headquarters of the international company Zylog Systems is located in Edison, as is the headquarters of the e-commerce companies Boxed and Bare Necessities.

Sport Plainfield Country Club is a private country club that has hosted the 1987 U.S. Women's Open and The Barclays golf tournament, the first PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoff event, in both 2011 and 2015.

Parks Oak Tree Pond is the site of the Battle of Short Hills, a minor battle of the American Revolutionary War and whose conversion into a park ended a real estate development controversy.

Roosevelt Park, located between Parsonage Road and Route 1, west of the Mall, covers 196 acres (79ย ha), including the 8-acre (3.2ย ha) Roosevelt Park Lake. The park was established in 1917, making it the oldest county park in Middlesex County.

Edison State Park and Dismal Swamp are also located in the township.

Colleges Lincoln Technical Institute (or Lincoln Tech) is a for-profit vocational school located in Edison. Lincoln Tech offers various programs in Nursing and in medical and computer applications.

Middlesex County College (MCC) is a public, two-year community college located in Edison at the intersection of Woodbridge Avenue and Mill Road.

Rutgers University's Livingston campus is located on the former Camp Kilmer, partially located in Edison.

Libraries Edison has three public library branches.

Transport: Road Edison is a transportation hub, with an extensive network of highways passing through the township and connecting to major Northeast cities, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Trenton, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and others. As of Mayย 2010, the township had a total of 307.05 miles (494.15ย km) of roadways, of which 257.31 miles (414.10ย km) were maintained by the municipality, 29.78 miles (47.93ย km) by Middlesex County and 14.75 miles (23.74ย km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and 5.21 miles (8.38ย km) by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

State roads include Route 27 and 440, both of which are state-maintained. U.S. Route 1 also passes through the township. Interstate 287 passes through Edison, where it houses its southern end at I-95. The municipality also houses about a 5-mile (8.0ย km) section of the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95). Exit 10 is located in Edison, featuring a 13-lane toll gate and a unique interchange design. When the "dual-dual" setup of the turnpike was created, it first started in Edison and continued north to Exit 14 in Newark. It wasn't until 1973 that the "dual-dual" was extended south of 10 to Exit 9 in East Brunswick Township (and then extended further south in 1990 to Exit 8A in Monroe Township).

Since Interstate 287 connects to Interstate 87 (the New York State Thruway), Exit 10 (of the turnpike) is one of the busiest interchanges to be used by tractor-trailers as it connects the New Jersey Turnpike to the New York Thruway. For truck drivers, it is the only direct limited-access road connection they have from the Turnpike to the Thruway as the Garden State Parkway, which has its northern terminus at the Thruway, prohibits trucks from using the roadway north of Exit 105.

In 2009, the New Jersey Department of Transportation selected Edison as one of the first communities to have a red light camera enforcement system. The program was ended by the state in December 2014, despite a more than 30% drop in accidents at the three camera-controlled intersections in the township.

Public transportation Edison station, located in South Edison, is served by NJ Transit northbound trains to Newark Penn Station and Penn Station New York, and southbound to the Trenton Transit Center via the Northeast Corridor Line, with connecting service to Amtrak, and SEPTA. Some passengers in North Edison are closer to, and may prefer to use, the Metropark station (near neighboring Iselin in Woodbridge Township) or Metuchen station.

NJ Transit bus service is provided on the 62 route to Newark, with local service available on the 801, 804, 805, 810, 813, 814, 819, 978 and 979 routes.

The Taiwanese airline China Airlines provides private bus service to John F. Kennedy International Airport from the Kam Man Food location in Edison to feed its flight to Taipei, Taiwan.

Healthcare JFK Medical Center, located on James Street off Parsonage Road is a 498-bed hospital founded in 1967.

Roosevelt Care Center is a long term/sub-acute care facility located just east of Roosevelt Park. The facility was original constructed in 1936 under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration.

Edison is served by the Raritan Valley Regional EMS. The squad consists of three sub-squads, Edison First Aid Squad #1 (established in 1935), Edison First Aid Squad #2 (since 1936) and Clara Barton First Aid Squad (since 1951). The three squads merged in 2009 to better provide residents of Edison with more comprehensive care. RVREMS receives support from paramedics out of JFK Medical Center. The squad consists of approximately 50 volunteer EMTs.

Telecommunications Edison is served by area codes 732 and 848 and 908. Area Code 848 is an overlay area code that was created so that a split was not needed.

Edison has five Verizon Central offices serving the Township: โ€ข Central Office Rahway (Switch ID: RHWYNJRADS5) (Area Code 732): Serving from Wood Avenue North to Roxy Avenue on the west side of the Street inward to New Dover Road. โ€ข Central Office Plainfield (Switch ID: PLFDNJPFDS5) (Area Code 908): Serving Roxy Avenue heading north into South Plainfield on both sides of Inman Avenue. โ€ข Central Office Metuchen (Switch ID: MTCHNJMTDS5) (Area Code 732): Serving Edison, Metuchen and Iselin (Technically Iselin Numbers that have 732โ€“283 and 732โ€“404 are routed out of the Woodbridge Office Switch ID: WDBRNJWDDS5). โ€ข Central Office Edison (Switch ID: EDSNNJEDDS5): Serving South Edison with phone numbers that come up as "New Brunswick" โ€“ 732โ€“339, 732โ€“393, 732โ€“572, 732โ€“777, 732โ€“819, 732โ€“985, and Exchanges for "Metuchen" that are 732โ€“248, 732โ€“287, 732โ€“650. โ€ข Central Office Fords (Switch ID: FRDSNJFRDS5): Serving Eastern Edison area and Raritan Center areas with 732โ€“225, 732โ€“346, 732โ€“417, 732โ€“512 and Perth Amboy Exchanges 732โ€“661, 732โ€“738.

In 1982, the BPU and New Jersey Bell, after receiving thousands of complaints from both North and South Edison residents, made an exception that any calls originating and terminating in the Township would be considered a local call. This was due to the new home construction in Edison where existing cables that belonged to the Rahway central office were assigned to give new phone service to over 400 homes.

In 1997, mandatory ten-digit dialing came to Edison with the introduction of Area code 732. Edison residents living on Roxy Avenue once again were in the spotlight in the news, with one side of the street served by the Rahway central office (Area code 732) and the other side of the street is served by the Plainfield central office (Area Code 908). Residents complained to the BPU and Bell Atlantic that it would be easier to yell across the street than dial a ten-digit number to call their neighbor across the street.

Edison has Cablevision's Optimum cable television service. Before Cablevision, there was TKR, which was so poorly run that many FCC and BPU complaints about programming and many town hall meetings eventually forced change. TKR was bought out by Cablevision.

Edison, New Jersey, United States 
<b>Edison, New Jersey, United States</b>
Image: Sujit kumar

Edison has a population of over 107,588 people. Edison also forms one of the centres of the wider Middlesex County which has a population of over 863,162 people. It is also a part of the larger New York metropolitan area. Edison is ranked #443 for startups with a score of 0.455.

To set up a UBI Lab for Edison see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Edison has links with:

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Shijiazhuang, China ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Vadodara, India
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Edison is: 105.601,-40.518

Locations Near: Edison -74.3991,40.5175

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ New Brunswick -74.446,40.494 d: 4.7  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Piscataway -74.461,40.546 d: 6.1  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Plainfield -74.416,40.615 d: 11  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Middlesex -74.498,40.575 d: 10.5  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Woodbridge -74.279,40.555 d: 11  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Old Bridge -74.309,40.405 d: 14.7  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Somerville -74.608,40.57 d: 18.6  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Elizabeth -74.212,40.664 d: 22.7  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Irvington -74.233,40.724 d: 26.9  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Staten Island -74.133,40.567 d: 23.1  

Antipodal to: Edison 105.601,-40.518

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 18818.6  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 18749.2  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 18727.8  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 18712.2  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 18692.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 18692.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 18777.2  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 18678.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 18681.3  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 18678  

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