With 1.1 million acres, the Pinelands is the largest body ofprimarily forested open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard betweenRichmond and Boston and is a natural and cultural environmentunique to the world. The byway meanders through areas of strikingand subtle natural beauty and rich historic heritage. Visitors willbe greeted by natural attributes of the Pinelands that include apristine and protected estuary, coastal marshes and plants andanimals that are unique to the Pinelands, two federally designatedWild and Scenic rivers, state and national forests and wildlifemanagement areas, recreational opportunities, and a federallyadministered preserve and research center.

First used by the colonists as a source of bog iron in the late1700s, a rural version of the Industrial Revolution took hold asiron smelting and glass production became the major source ofemployment within this area. With the depletion of the foreststhrough the need to operate the iron and glass furnaces, the areaturned to truck farming since at least the early nineteenth centuryand berry farming a few decades later. This area has been key tomaintaining New Jersey's nickname "The Garden State" with some of the largest cranberry and blueberry operations in the world.

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