These New Jersey cities are two of the oldest in America

We often take for granted that we live in a historic state with some of the earliest settlements in the country.

When you go out west, you'll find a lot less history.

It's amazing that we don't speak Dutch, with a lot of our earliest towns and cities being founded by Dutch traders.

I guess they weren't as aggressive as the British. One of those Dutch settlements was Jersey City.

According to one list, Jersey City comes in at number 8 on the list of the 10 oldest cities in America.

Jersey City occupies the land where Dutch traders established the settlement of New Netherland in or around 1617, although some historians trace Jersey City's beginnings to a Dutch land grant in 1630.

Of course, the Lenape People originally occupied it.

Although its population was well established by the time of the American Revolution, it wasn't formally incorporated until 1820 as the City of Jersey.

Eighteen years later, it would be reincorporated as Jersey City.

However, another list ranks Gloucester City in South Jersey as the seventh oldest city in America.

Again, we can thank the Dutch. In 1623, Capt. Cornelius Mey with 24 settlers landed at Gloucester Point and built Fort Nassau.

The Dutch settlers built a fort and trading post here to trade for furs with the Native American tribes.

The main reason for the location of the fort in Gloucester City was not military but because from there they could command the river and stop traders from accessing the Schuylkill River on the other side of the Delaware in Philadelphia.

Not too far north of there is Burlington City, the third oldest city in the state and once the capital of West Jersey.

Then again some say it's the oldest town in the state founded by early Swedish settlers.

It depends on whether you go by when a place was first inhabited or incorporated as a city.

Yeah, there is a lot of history here and plenty of old towns for history buffs to explore.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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