Woodbridge Township, New Jersey<\/h3>
Woodbridge Township is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional hub for Central New Jersey and a major bedroom suburb of New York City in the much larger New York Metropolitan Area, located within the core of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township had a total population of 99,585,[8][9][10] reflecting an increase of 2,382 (+2.5%) from the 97,203 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 4,117 (+4.4%) from the 93,086 counted in the 1990 Census.[27] Woodbridge was the sixth-most-populous municipality in New Jersey in 2000 and 2010.[28] Woodbridge hosts the intersection of the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, the two busiest highways in the state, and also serves as the headquarters for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.[29]<\/p>
According to Joshua Coffin, the early settlers included \"Captain John Pike, the ancestor of General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was killed at the battle of Queenstown in 1813; Thomas Bloomfield, the ancestor of Joseph Bloomfield, some years governor of New Jersey, for whom the township of Bloomfield, New Jersey is named; John Bishop, senior and junior; Jonathan Haynes; Henry Jaques; George March; Stephen Kent; Abraham Toppan, junior; Elisha Ilsley; Hugh March; John Bloomfield; Samuel Moore; Nathaniel Webster; John Ilsley; and others.\"[30] Woodbridge was the site of the first gristmill in New Jersey.[31][32] The mill was built by Jonathan Singletary Dunham (married to Mary Bloomfield, relative of Joseph Bloomfield).[33][34]<\/p>
The Township of Woodbridge is the oldest original township in New Jersey and was granted a royal charter on June 1, 1669, by King Charles II of England.[35] It was reincorporated on October 31, 1693. Woodbridge Township was incorporated by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798, as one of the initial 104 townships incorporated in the state under the Township Act. Portions of the township were taken to form Rahway (April 19, 1858), Raritan Township (March 17, 1870, now Edison Township) and Roosevelt (April 11, 1906, now Carteret).[36][37] The township is named after Reverend John W. Woodbridge (1613\u20131696) of Newbury, Massachusetts, who settled in the future township in 1664.[35][38]<\/p>
Woodbridge was the site of one of America's deadliest rail accidents on February 6, 1951, when a crowded commuter train derailed with 85 deaths. The victims are memorialized by a pair of historical markers, installed by New Jersey Transit in 2002 and by Woodbridge Township in 2013.[39][40][41]<\/p><\/div>\n