Elizabeth, NJ news and local guide

During the Revolutionary War, British forces based on Manhattan and Staten Island attacked Elizabethtown again and again, until the Battle of Springfield ended their attempts to take New Jersey. In 1789 George Washington set out by boat from Elizabethtown to Manhattan for his inauguration, and the city has many memorials of the Revolution. The New Jersey Legislature created the City of Elizabeth on March 13, 1855, combining Elizabeth Borough, dating from 1740, and Elizabeth Township, formed in 1693, subject to a referendum held on March 27, 1855. The city became part of the new Union County on March 19, 1857, and parts of it were taken to form Linden Township in 1861. Its first major industry was the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which employed as many as 2,000 people. In 1895 the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company was founded there to build the Electrobat, one of the first automobiles, and the electric car builder Andrew L. Riker soon followed. The Electric Boat Company began building submarines for the U.S. Navy in Elizabeth. Sources Wikipedia: Elizabeth, New Jersey