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is a Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 60,456.
by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 2, 1869, from portions of South Amboy Township (now City of South Amboy). On November 5, 1975, voters approved a referendum, by a 7,150-4,888 margin changing the township's name to Old Bridge Township. The township's name was changed to avoid confusion with the borough of Madison in Morris County. Old Bridge Township has consistently been a contender for the best places to live in the United States by
The first inhabitants of the area known as Old Bridge, were the Lenni Lenape Native Americans. They, like many people today, migrated to the shore along the Raritan each summer from their hunting grounds in the north. When the English gained control from the Dutch in 1664, the state was divided into two provinces, East Jersey and West Jersey. In 1682, the general assembly of East Jersey defined the boundaries of Middlesex County as containing all plantations on both sides of the Raritan River, as far as Cheesequake Harbor to the east, then southwest to the Provincial line. This Southwest line is the border of Monmouth and Middlesex Counties and the Township's southern border.
In 1684, South Amboy Township was formed. At that time, it covered an area that now consists of the Townships of Monroe and Old Bridge and the Boroughs of Sayreville and South Amboy. The Township comprises 42 square miles (109 km²) that separated from South Amboy on March 2, 1869, and was called Madison Township. In 1975, the name was changed by referendum to the Township of Old Bridge, to differentiate the township from the Borough of Madison, in Morris County. The first settlers were John Warne, son of one of the original proprietors of East Jersey, and John and Susannah Brown, who obtained a 1,000 acre (4 km²) land grant from King George II of Great Britain in 1737. A section of the Township still carries the name Browntown.