It was occupied by the British in the winter of 1776–1777 during the Revolutionary War. It was incorporated into a town in 1798 as part of the Township Act of 1798. New Brunswick was incorporated as a town in 1736 and chartered as a city in 1784. During the Colonial and Early American periods Ĭentrally located between New York City and Philadelphia along an early thoroughfare known as the King's Highway and situated along the Raritan River, New Brunswick became an important hub for Colonial travelers and traders. Alternatively, the city gets its name from King George II of Great Britain, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
Shortly after the first settlement of New Brunswick in colonial New Jersey, George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Elector of Hanover, became King George I of Great Britain. Braunschweig was an influential and powerful city in the Hanseatic League and was an administrative seat for the Duchy of Hanover. In 1714, the settlement was given the name New Brunswick, after the city of Braunschweig ( Brunswick in Low German), in the state of Lower Saxony, now located in Germany. The settlement here was called Prigmore's Swamp (1681–1697), then known as Inian's Ferry (1691–1714). The first European settlement at the site of New Brunswick was made in 1681. The area around present-day New Brunswick was first inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans, whose Minisink Trail intersected the Raritan River and followed a route that would be taken by later colonial roads.
Growing Asian and Hispanic communities have developed around French Street near Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. The Hungarian community continues as a cohesive community, with the 3,200 Hungarian residents accounting for 8% of the population of New Brunswick in 1992. At one time, one quarter of the Hungarian population of New Jersey resided in the city and in the 1930s one out of three city residents was Hungarian. New Brunswick is noted for its ethnic diversity. New Brunswick has evolved into a major center for the sciences, arts, and cultural activities, bringing gentrification to the city. The corporate headquarters and production facilities of several global pharmaceutical companies are situated in the city, including Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. Due to the concentration of medical facilities in the area, including Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Saint Peter's University Hospital, as well as Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick is known as both the Hub City and the Healthcare City. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 55,676 in 2019, ranking the city the 689th-most-populous in the country. The city is located on the southern banks of the Raritan River in the Raritan Valley region.įor 2020, New Brunswick had a population of 55,266, representing a 0.2% increase from the 55,181 people enumerated at the 2010 United States Census, which in turn had reflected an increase of 6,608 (+13.6%) from the 48,573 counted in the 2000 Census. New Brunswick is on the Northeast Corridor rail line, 27 miles (43 km) southwest of Manhattan. The city is both a regional commercial hub for the Central New Jersey region and a prominent and growing commuter town for residents commuting to New York City within the New York metropolitan area. The city is the county seat of Middlesex County, and is the home of Rutgers University. New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. Smith to Lew Dockstader in December 1923 on Dockstader's fall at what is now the State Theater. If I had to fall I wish it had been on the sidewalks of New York, not the sidewalks of New Brunswick, N.J.