Bridgeton
- Identifier
- NJS-PLC-00175
- Place Type
- City, Town, or Village
- Alternate Name
- Cohansey Bridge
- Bridgetown
- Description
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Bridgeton City is the county seat of Cumberland County and is located on the Cohansey River. English settlement in the area of modern-day Bridgeton dates back to the late 17th century, when this area was still part of Salem County. It was originally a small village known as Cohansey Bridge. This village became the seat of Cumberland County when Cumberland County broke off from Salem County in 1748. At this time, Cohansey Bridge, or simply The Bridge, was not yet incorporated as its own municipality. As the village grew into a town, The Bridge came to be known as Bridgetown by 1765, and the name evolved into Bridgeton by 1816.
Until the mid-19th century, the part of Bridgeton on the east side of the Cohansey River administratively belonged to Deerfield Township, and the part on the west side of the river belonged to Hopewell Township. In historical documents, residents of Bridgeton often indicated their place of residence by listing the name of the town, but their records (such as tax ratables) would be filed in Deerfield Township or Hopewell Township, depending on which side of the river their home was located on. Bridgeton Township was first incorporated in 1845 from a portion of Deerfield, and a short-lived township called Cohansey was created from a portion of Hopewell in 1848; by 1865, these two small townships merged to create modern Bridgeton City. - Locality
- Bridgeton
- County (Modern)
- Cumberland County
- State or Province
- New Jersey
- Country
- United States of America
- Related Place
- Cohansey
- Latitude
- 39.428781
- Longitude
- -75.231469
- References
-
John P. Snyder, The Story of New Jersey’s Civil Boundaries, 1606–1968 (Trenton, Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969; New Jersey Geological Survey, 2004), https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf. See p. 119, 261.
Penelope S. Watson, "Bridgeton, New Jersey," The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2018, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/locations/bridgeton-new-jersey/.
- Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
- Kemy Rodriguez
- Linked Places
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Bridgeton was previously associated with:
Places located in Bridgeton:
- Linked Persons
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To filter persons by location and other criteria, visit the Persons browsing page.
Persons of African descent linked to Bridgeton:
- Publius Vergillius Marr (b. 1806)
- Ager Welch (b. 1813) {alias Jane}
- Enoch (b. 1808) {son of Violet}
- Juno
- Violet
White persons linked to Bridgeton:
- Resource class
- Location