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About Watchung, NJ

The name "Watchung" comes from the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, meaning "high hills" or from "watschu", meaning "hill". George Washington surveyed the British troops in Perth Amboy, 20 miles away, from the first ridge of the Watchung Mountains. The eastern edge of these ridges reaches to the Oranges in the direction of Newark. The name "Washingtonville" was used in early times, but was rejected as the name for the area by the United States Postal Service, which felt that the state already had too many places named Washington. Watchung, in the 1900s was a semi-rural small community of about 3,200 people in comparison with the relatively larger and more urban communities of Plainfield and Somerville.