Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, the county seat of Mercer County, and an anchor city for the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. It is sometimes considered the southernmost city of the New York metropolitan area. The city and its immediate suburbs are often lumped together and referred to as “Greater Trenton” by locals. As of the United States 2000 Census, the City of Trenton had a population of 85,403; the median household income is $31,074, and the median family income is $36,681.

The city was a major manufacturing center in the early 1900s; one relic of that era is the slogan “Trenton Makes, The World Takes” displayed on the Lower Free Bridge (the “Trenton Makes Bridge”), just north of the Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge, which one can see as they enter the city. The city adopted the slogan in the 1920s to represent Trenton’s then-leading role as a major manufacturing center for steel, rubber, wire, rope, linoleum and ceramics.

Trenton is the home of the Trenton Thunder Eastern League AA minor league baseball team, which is affiliated with the New York Yankees and plays in Mercer County Waterfront Park, and the Trenton Titans (an ECHL minor league hockey affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers) which plays in the Sovereign Bank Arena.

Public transportation within and beyond the city is mostly provided by New Jersey Transit, including commuter train service northward from the Trenton Rail Station to Newark and New York along the Northeast Corridor. SEPTA provides commuter train service southward from the Trenton Station to Philadelphia, and Amtrak trains provide long distance service along the Northeast Corridor. The city is served by the Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing and the international airports in Newark (reachable by direct New Jersey Transit or Amtrak rail link) and Philadelphia.