Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns · #189 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
Its Register listing is the High Bridge Reformed Church. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1880.
The High Bridge post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1871.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, High Bridge is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #189 of 468 in New Jersey. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
New Jersey towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Jersey town has 3.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so High Bridge’s 5.6 sits near the middle of its state (59% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how High Bridge’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1880 and 1900, then more than doubled.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on High Bridge’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of High Bridge. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of High Bridge.
From Wikipedia’s history of High Bridge.
High Bridge was originally incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29, 1871, from portions of Clinton Township and Lebanon Township. On February 19, 1898, the borough of High Bridge was incorporated from portions of the township, with the remainder returned to Clinton and Lebanon Townships five days later.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereGeorge W. Taylor is born here
In the archiveHigh Bridge (Township); High Bridge Business Notices.; Mountainville (Village)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1896Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on High Bridge’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
High Bridge’s post office has been open since 1855.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The High Bridge post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1871.
High Bridge is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #189 of 468 in New Jersey. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
One place: the High Bridge Reformed Church (listed 1980).
31% of High Bridge’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1971.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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