NEWARK, the largest city of New Jersey, U.S.A., and the 18th in size in the United States (193o), a port of entry and the county seat of Essex county; on the Passaic river and Newark bay, 8 m. W. of lower Manhattan (New York city). It is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Central of New Jersey, the Erie, the Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley and the Pennsylvania railways and an industrial belt line; steamships operating to Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific ports, and Hudson river landings; interurban trolleys, motor-bus and truck lines in all directions ; and the Hudson and Manhattan railroad, which provides 176 trains daily to and from New York city via the Hudson tubes. A State highway runs direct (across Jersey City) to the Holland vehicular tunnel. Newark Metropolitan airport (35o ac. at Port Newark) was opened in 1928 for commercial aviation, and is to be used by the post-office department as the concentration and distributing base for air mail for the metropolitan district and eastern points. Pop. (193o) (65% native white, 26% foreign-born white and 9% negroes) ; and in 1935 it was estimated at 500,000. This is doubled by the adjacent cities and suburbs, including Elizabeth, Bayonne, Harrison, the Oranges, Belleville, Nutley, Bloomfield and Montclair.
The city has an area of 23.78 sq.m., io.5 m. of water front, 365 m. of streets (32o m. paved), 51,138 buildings (Dec. 1927) and an assessed valuation for 1936 of $724,119,522. The site, bordered on the east by a double S-shaped curve of the Passaic river, is generally level, but rises toward the west. Port Newark faces Newark bay at the mouth of the river. The city is laid out in an irregular pattern. It is closely built up in the business sections, largely with tall structures of modern type. Many of the older buildings are of a native brown sandstone. Broad street (12o ft. wide) and Market street (90 ft.) are the principal thoroughfares, and their intersection (the "Four Corners") is one of the busiest traffic spots in the world. Near by is Military park (an irregular plaza used in colonial days as a drill ground), surrounded by public and semi-public buildings (including the Public Service terminal, completed in 1916) and containing a magnificent bronze group of 48 figures on a gigantic scale by Gutzon Borglum, "The Wars of America." Facing Washington park, also near the heart of the city, are the public library and the Newark Museum of Industry, Art and Science (opened 1926). Conspicuous among the
city's business structures are the buildings of the Prudential and various other insurance companies. The county court house, designed by Cass Gilbert, has mural decorations by well known American artists, and in front of it is Gutzon Borglum's seated statue of Lincoln (in bronze). The hall of records, opposite the court house, was completed in 1928. Completion of a union rail way and trolley station in 1937 enabled abolition of Manhattan Transfer in the New Jersey meadows and involved the construc tion of Newark's first subway. Among the noteworthy old buildings are the Trinity Episcopal cathedral, near Military park, built in 1743 and used as a hospital during the Revolution, and the House of Prayer with its stone rectory. There are 38 playgrounds, with a combined area of 110 ac., and the parks within the city limits cover 743 ac., of which 704 ac. are part of the Essex county park system aggregating 3,948 acres.
Since 1917 the city has operated under a commission form of government. Five commissioners, elected at large every four years, constitute the governing body. Each commissioner is the director of one of the five departments of the city's business (public affairs, public works, finance, public safety, parks and public property) and the director of the department of public affairs serves as mayor. The public schools are administered by a non-partisan appointed board. On the initiative of the chamber of commerce, the council-manager form of government has been under discussion at various periods since 1924. The city's water supply from the Pequannock river (55,000,000 gal. daily) has been increased by the development of the Wanaque watershed (a joint undertaking by several municipalities of northern New Jersey) which will supply a total of i oo,000,000 gal. a day, of which 40,500,000 gal. has been allotted to Newark. The sewage from Newark, Paterson and 13 other municipalities on the Passaic river is collected by a large intercepting sewer (completed 1924), carried down to a disposal plant on the Newark meadows, where it is treated for the removal of solids, and thence carried under Newark bay and Jersey City to a point in New York bay 2 m. from the shore, where the effluent is discharged at a depth of 40 ft. into strong tidal currents.