Hi Brendan,

Today, I visited the rehearsal of the Bergen Youth Orchestra. Your cousin Suzanne and her friend Zoe play the violin in the Junior Strings Orchestra. I had a lot of fun. Place your mouse over the picture at the top of the page to see me turning the music for the girls!

Did you know that Bergen is just one of the twenty-one counties in the State of New Jersey? As you mentioned in your letter, New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country. In order to govern that many citizens, New Jersey has a county system. A county is a group of towns that are governed together. Suzanne and Zoe live in towns that are contained in Bergen County. Suzanne lives in the town of Montvale and Zoe lives in the town of River Vale.

Click on the jump menu below to choose one of the twenty-one counties to learn more! Click GO, and you can link to that county's web site. Remember to click on the BACK button to return to this page.

Brendan! Be sure to select Ocean County. When you get to that web page, click on the "Interesting Places" button and then the "Barnegat Light" link. This will bring you to a page about "Old Barney" which is the lighthouse that you mentioned in your letter.

Hunterdon County continues to have the largest land area of farms in the New Jersey. Visit the Hunterdon County web site to see pictures of farms, horses and gardens.

Cape May County has over 600 Victorian Houses. Visit the Cape May County link. At the bottom of the Cape May Home page, there is a link for "A Video view of the Jersey Cape." Click on that link to see a short movie about Cape May.

During the Revolutionary War, Morris County was known as The Military Capital of the American Revolution. This is because of its important location. General. George Washington and his Continental Army made their winter encampments near Morristown on two different winters.

The City of Paterson, located in Passaic County, has been called the "Cradle of American Industry." The Great Falls of Passaic, located on the Passaic River, was used to supply water power for factories in Paterson. The products that were made here included textiles (cloth), machinery, steam locomotives (trains), silk weaving (silk cloth produced from silk worms) and aircraft engines.

Have Fun!