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1906 Map of Princeton

Name: 1906 Topographic Map of Princeton
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1921
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1921

About this map

Princeton serves as the academic and geographic heart of this Central New Jersey landscape, situated at the junction of several critical transport arteries. The Delaware and Raritan Canal snakes northward alongside the Millstone River, passing through smaller settlements like Griggstown and Blackwells Mills. This waterway, once a vital industrial corridor, is paralleled by an intricate network of competing rail lines, including the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the Trenton and New Brunswick Electric Railroad.

Surveyed at the turn of the century, the map reveals a mosaic of orchards and agricultural hamlets like Belle Mead, Blawenburg, and Rocky Hill. The terrain shifts from the prominent ridges of Bunker Hill and Sand Hills in the north to the lowlands of Bear Swamp and Pigeon Swamp further south. This detail captures the region before extensive suburbanization, when small hubs like Monmouth Junction and Dayton functioned primarily as rail-dependent rural centers.