New Jersey Crossroads of Commerce Author:Helen-Chantal Pike Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano got it right in 1524 the land that would become New Jersey represented unlimited opportunity. Yet he could not have foreseen the explosive diversity and wealth that would unfold in the Garden State in the centuries to come. Generated equally by investment from around the world and home-grown ingenuity, ... more »successive waves of discovery broke new ground in medicine, agriculture, communications, industry, and even the arts and entertainment. In New Jersey: Crossroads of Commerce, author Helen-Chantal Pike takes readers on a fascinating trek through nearly 500 years of unparalleled innovation that tapped the state s enormous natural and intellectual assets. The Garden State s record of high achievement the ubiquitous lightbulb, organic cures for life-threatening diseases, far-reaching satellite technology, and the lead role in the country s burgeoning green movement is beyond compare in its scope and breadth. Solutions to humankind s most urgent challenges are generated here by the world s foremost thinkers, who are attracted not only by the prospect of working with their peers but also by the resources offered them. The state s port cities, on the Hudson and Delaware rivers, put New Jersey in the vanguard of intermodal transportation logistics. As the nation s most strategic crossroads location, New Jersey offers unrivaled access to influential foreign and domestic economies as well as to leading financial and consumer markets. Its commitment to surface and air transportation is unequivocal. Blessed with a temperate climate as well as rivers, bays, the Appalachian Trail, and an extensive Atlantic Ocean coastline, the Garden State offers a superb environment in which to work and live. Executives from multinational corporations are among those who find the lifestyle rewarding, the educational systems outstanding, the cultural offerings at once cosmopolitan and original, and the access to health care superlative. The history of achievement documented in New Jersey: Crossroads of Commerce sets the stage for the state s dynamic, 21st-century economy.« less