Trenton’s historically iconic slogan – “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” – can be seen today, as the City’s catchy tag is nicely affixed to the Lower Trenton Bridge. I.e.: to the Lower Free Bridge. I.e.: to the Trenton makes bridge. This illuminated, bold, manufacturing-derived Trenton statement – “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” – was hung on the Trenton makes bridge – the first bridge to cross the Delaware River, by the way – in 1935.
Trenton claimed its confident slogan in the year 1917. Justifiably so. Attaching the confident pronouncement of what Trenton was really, really good at – manufacturing – to a city which was indeed, at that time, thriving. Thriving, thanks to the strong manufacturing base in Trenton. Thriving, thanks to Trenton’s strong export economy, which was tied to its strong manufacturing base. Trenton’s early-Twentieth Century manufacturing prowess – coupled to Trenton exporting its finished manufactured products, such as wire rope and rubber – positioned Trenton as one of the truly booming early-Twentieth Century Mid-Atlantic industrial hubs.
Wrought iron beams…beams used to construct the dome in our nation’s Capital building. Those beams were manufactured in Trenton. Wire rope…wire rope used during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Wheeling Bridge (the bridge which connects West Virginia to Ohio). That wire rope was manufactured in Trenton. Prior to Akron, Ohio claiming the title as the “Rubber Capital of the World,” in the early-1900’s, Trenton was “the nation’s tire capital.”
John A. Roebling established his steel wire manufacturing empire – The Roebling Steel Company – in Trenton. In 1849. Roebling established his company alongside the Delaware Canal and the Raritan Canal. John A. Roebling’s creation of what would go on to become the iconic Trenton-based manufacturing masterpiece, a company which also became Trenton’s largest and most well-known employer, formed on 25 acres John A. Roebling purchased in Trenton in 1848. By 1850, the early-on foundation for what would go on to become Trenton’s burgeoning rubber industry had taken hold. By the late 1800’s, Trenton was, without question, on its way to becoming a distinct American manufacturing powerhouse.
Twenty years after John A. Roebling laid the initial groundwork for his Roebling Steel Company, a father and son team – Alan and Frank Magowan – formed a company in Trenton which went on to become the oldest rubber mill in the United States – Trenton Rubber Company.
The Trenton Rubber Company was the resulting entity, formed through a conversion by the Magowans of an existing rubber outfit – Whitehead Brother’s Rubber Company – into the Magowans’ own rubber company, Trenton Rubber Company. Thanks in part to successes the McGowan’s enjoyed by reaping fruits bestowed upon them from their profits in the Trenton rubber business, Trenton, by the late 1800’s, became a major producer of rubber.
Roebling went on to become the world’s largest manufacturer of wire rope. Wire rope, shipping, mining, construction, electrical power transmission, cable cars, tramways, aircraft, submarine netting, musical instruments, elevators, logging, oil drilling… Each proudly manufactured and produced, at one time, in Trenton.
The early-Twentieth Century industrial strength of Trenton – and of Trenton industrialists – owed much of its sustenance to the City’s ability to utilize newly-built area canals and railroads to transport finished manufactured goods made in Trenton to larger end markets, such as New York City and Philadelphia.
While Trenton certainly enjoyed a long, well-sustained run as an important American manufacturing center, in June of 1974, the final 1,400 employees of what had once been Roebling’s Trenton industrial empire lost their jobs. These final Roebling-related layoffs, the result of numerous previous failed attempts to revive the then-Trenton plant controlled by (at that time) Roebling’s acquirer – Colorado Fuel & Iron. The two Trenton-based Roebling manufacturing plants closed their doors for good in 1974. Marking the formal end of Roebling’s manufacturing presence in Trenton. And, to some, also marking a finality of sorts, to what once had been a thriving industrial hub…
Cheaper foreign competition in the manufacturing sector. The hollowing out of the City’s property tax base. Suburbanization. Each contributing in their own unique way to Trenton’s decline. A decline in output…a decline in population.
Prior to Trenton’s continual decade-by-decade population descent, the City’s population had steadily increased, year-by-year, beginning in the late 18th Century. Right up through the 1950’s. Topping off at a population of just about 128,000 by the mid-1950’s. In 2022, Trenton’s population was about 90,000. 90,000 residents in Trenton. 90,000, a population total which is roughly 70% of the Trenton population total from seventy years ago.
Mechanicals used in San Francisco’s first streetcars? Manufactured in Trenton. Cable, spark plugs, and electrical wire used in aviator Charles Lindbergh’s iconic single-engine Spirit of St Louis plane in 1927? Trenton. Cable stays on the Wright Brother first airplane? Trenton. Under the Articles of Confederation, Trenton was once – albeit briefly, from November 1, 1784 until December 24, 1784, our nation’s capital.
While Trenton’s population peaked in the mid-1950’s, during this same time frame, specific socioeconomic challenges began to take hold in cities throughout the United States. One characteristic which accompanied some of these socioeconomic challenges had been found in laborers who, previously residing in southern US states, began migrating to northern industrial cities. To Trenton. Their migration, attributed to migrants’ need to identify higher wages, larger weekly paychecks, and more favorable employment conditions. In northern factories. Trenton, a northern industrial city, partook in this influx of mid-century migrants from the south.
A notable portion of mid-century migrants who ended up in Trenton (as had so too been the case in numerous northern cities) were not in possession of the advanced skill sets needed to enable the migrants to attain wages which were high enough to support the purchase (and the upkeep) of Trenton homes. Nor would the substandard wages paid to unskilled Trenton migratory workers enable the migrant laborers to afford to pay property taxes on Trenton homes (when they proceeded to purchase Trenton homes). The outcome being, over time, more and more Trenton homes fell into a state of disrepair.
Non-maintenance of Trenton homes, combined with (arguably, by some) a trend towards lax oversight by the City when it came to enforcing housing maintenance standards in Trenton, led to the deterioration of the condition of Trenton housing stock in center city. Which, when combined with White flight, likely redlining by lenders, trending suburbanization, a decrease in center city Trenton home values, and an increased ease accompanying the drive in to (and out of) center city Trenton, from the suburbs (thanks to the construction of new roads and highways), led to a substantive increase in blight within Trenton.
In Trenton today, upwards of 60% of Trenton residents rent their homes (or their apartments). Whereas, in Mercer County, New Jersey, as well as in the State of New Jersey overall, only between 30% to 40% of residents rent.
Furthermore, Trenton has thousands of vacant lots, vacant buildings and vacant homes. The hollowing out of Trenton’s industrial base. The deterioration of the quality of Trenton’s center city housing stock. This once-industrial powerhouse certainly owns its share of economic and housing-related challenges. Yet, with thousands of vacant lots, vacant buildings, and vacant homes located within its borders, this former Mid-Atlantic industrial heavyweight arguably also possesses the ingredients to establish processes to transition the now non-performing Trenton properties to high-quality affordable housing options. Available, then, to those who call Trenton “home.” While at the same time, increasing the city’s property tax base.
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