PERTH AMBOY, a city of Middlesex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., at the mouth of the Raritan river, on Raritan bay and Staten Island sound. It is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Central of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley and the Pennsylvania railways and by boats to New York; and is connected with Tottenville, at the southern end of Staten island, by the Outer bridge Crossing, a highway bridge built by the Port of New York Authority (opened 1928), and with South Amboy, across the Raritan, by the Victory bridge (opened 1926), a State memorial to the men of the World War. Pop. (1920) 41,707 (36% foreign born white) ; in 1930 it was 43,516. Perth Amboy has a good harbour, with ship-yards and dry docks, and is a port of entry. Its manufacturing industries are varied and important, with an output in 1927 valued at $204,516,828. Chief among them are huge copper and silver refineries, which produce 37,000,000 oz. of silver annually and 28% of the world's output of copper.
The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $47494,300. There are many old buildings of historic interest still standing in and near the city, including the Government house, built by the colonial proprietors in 1760; Franklin palace the home of William Franklin, a natural son of Benjamin Franklin and the last royal governor of New Jersey; the Barracks (1759) the Parker house (1729), a Loyalist centre during the Revolu tion; and Kearney cottage (1730), the home of "Madam Scrib blerus." Perth Amboy was founded in 1683 and incorporated as a city in 1718. At first it was called by the Indian name Amboy, but the proprietors named it Perth, after one of their number, the Earl of Perth, and later the two names were combined. From 1686 until the end of the proprietary government in 1702 it was the capital of East Jersey and under the royal government it alternated with Burlington as the seat of government.