Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, sitting on the Delaware River halfway between New York and Philadelphia. Most people pass through it on Amtrak without a second thought. They are missing one of the most historically layered small cities in the United States.
This is where Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night 1776, surprised the Hessian garrison, and won the battle that kept the Revolution alive. The Battle of Trenton Monument marks the artillery position and still dominates the northern end of downtown. The Old Barracks Museum — the only surviving free-standing Revolutionary War barracks in the country — operates as a living history museum a short walk away. The New Jersey State House, the second-oldest working state capitol in the country, sits on the same block. You can cover all three in a morning.
The industrial past is equally remarkable. John Roebling moved his wire rope company here in 1848, and the Roebling Wire Works on the south side of downtown — a National Historic Landmark — is where the cables for the Brooklyn Bridge were manufactured. The famous Trenton Makes bridge sign, lit in red neon across the Delaware, reads "Trenton Makes, The World Takes." It was installed in 1935, at the tail end of the city's industrial peak, and has a bittersweet quality now that most of what it celebrated is gone.
For neighbourhood character, Mill Hill has the best-preserved 18th and 19th-century streetscapes, and Chambersburg to the south remains an Italian-American enclave with old-school bakeries and the thin-crust Trenton tomato pie — a style of pizza invented here, with sauce on top of the cheese, that has devotees across the region.
The city's location makes it practical as a day trip from New York or Philadelphia. The Trenton Transit Center has frequent NJ Transit and SEPTA service in both directions, and the train ride from Philadelphia is just 40 minutes.