Elizabeth is the seat of Union County, New Jersey, on Newark Bay just south of Newark and about 15 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan. With roughly 140,000 residents, it is the fourth-largest city in the state. The city is New Jersey's oldest: settled in 1664 as Elizabethtown, it became the colony's first permanent English community and served as an early capital. Its name honors Lady Elizabeth Carteret, wife of one of the colony's first proprietors. Industry and transportation have shaped Elizabeth ever since. The city is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, one of the largest and busiest container ports on the East Coast, which — together with Newark Liberty International Airport at the city's western edge — makes Elizabeth a linchpin of the region's freight and logistics economy. Shipping, warehousing, and related businesses rank among the city's leading employers, alongside healthcare at Trinitas Regional Medical Center and retail at the Mills at Jersey Gardens. Elizabeth is also one of New Jersey's most diverse cities, with large Hispanic and Portuguese-speaking communities and a long-established African American population. Neighborhoods range from Elmora, home to a sizable Modern Orthodox community and its Jewish Educational Center, to Midtown, Peterstown, and the historic Elizabeth Avenue commercial corridor. NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor line stops in the city, putting Newark and New York within an easy rail commute, and the New Jersey Turnpike, Routes 1 and 9, and the Goethals Bridge pass through or beside the city. Kean University in neighboring Union and Union College of Union County broaden higher-education access nearby. That combination of deep history, port-driven employment, and transit access defines Elizabeth as a working, multiethnic city with a distinctive place in New Jersey's story.