New Jersey

Owner	US Federal Government	Established	1787
Purpose	US State
Status	US State

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Northeastern United States. It is a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area and was the 11th-most populous, at one time boasting being the most densely populated state in the country. Beginning in 2006 following the thermonuclear explosion in Midtown Manhattan that revealed the existence of the Evolved, New Jersey's population rapidly diminished. The initial cause for exodus was radioactive fallout drifting southwest from Manhattan forcing evacuation of residents west of the Hudson River. Some three million residents were forced from their home, buildings closed, and communities abandoned. Riots and resulting fires that sprang up during that time caused billions of dollars in property damages and by the time the fallout diminished and coastal New Jersey was safe to resettle, the damage was already done. The final nail in New Jersey's coffin came during the Second American Civil War where battles spilled out from New York into the surrounding Jersey territories and evacuees fleeing the war tore through the remaining towns, bringing with them strife, poverty, and disease.

New Jersey now has a population of roughly 579,000 primarily in the rural northern portions of the state. Small communities running "off the grid" began to form in the years following the war in the southern New Jersey region colloquially known as the "Pine Barrens" which serves as a mid-way point between the NYC Safe Zone and the ruins of Philadelphia in the west.