Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 85,403. Trenton is located in almost the exact center of the north-south axis of the state. Due to this, it is sometimes included as part of North Jersey and as the southernmost city of the New York metropolitan area. Others consider it part of South Jersey and as the northernmost city of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Locals consider it to be a part of Central Jersey, and thus part of neither region, though in truth the city has more communication and transportation links with the Delaware Valley than it does with New York. It is the county seat of Mercer County. The City of Trenton is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government.

Trenton is the home of the Trenton Thunder minor league baseball team, which is affiliated with the New York Yankees, and the Trenton Titans minor league hockey team, an affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. The New Jersey State Prison, which has two maximum security units and houses the state's most dangerous criminals, is also located in Trenton.

This city is an anchor city for the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Trenton and its immediate suburbs are often lumped together and referred to as "Greater Trenton" by locals.

The first settlement which would become Trenton was established by Quakers in 1679, in the region then called the Falls of the Delaware, led by Mahlon Stacy from Handsworth, Sheffield, UK. Quakers were being persecuted in England at this time and North America provided the perfect opportunity to exercise their religious freedom.

By 1719, the town adopted the name "Trent-towne", after William Trent, one of its leading landholders who purchased much of the surrounding land from Stacy's family. This name later was shortened to "Trenton".

During the American Revolution, the city was the site of George Washington's first military victory. On December 26, 1776, Washington and his army, after crossing the icy Delaware River to Trenton, defeated the Hessian troops garrisoned there (see Battle of Trenton). After the war, Trenton was briefly the national capital of the United States in November and December of 1784. The city was considered as a permanent capital for the new country, but the southern states favored a location south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Trenton became the state capital in 1790, but prior to that year the Legislature often met here. The town was incorporated in 1792.

In 1896 the first professional basketball game was played in Trenton between the Trenton Basketball Team and the Brooklyn YMCA.

Trenton was a major manufacturing center in the late 1800s and early 1900s; one relic of that era is the slogan "Trenton Makes, the World Takes" displayed on the Lower Free Bridge just north of the Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge (the "Trenton Makes Bridge"). The city adopted the slogan in the 1920s to represent Trenton's then-leading role as a major manufacturing center for steel, rubber, wire, rope, linoleum and ceramics.

Trenton's current mayor, Douglas Palmer, has been in office for 15 years.

Some well-known Americans born in Trenton include comedian Ernie Kovacs, football Pro Bowlers Troy Vincent,Gary Stills and Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea, basketball star Dennis Rodman, Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis, former New York City mayor David Dinkins, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, General Norman Schwarzkopf and former Mobil Oil executive William Granville.