I worked in Camden and yes, it is a garbage pit.
But it wasn't always that way.
Up until the LBJ era and the "War On Poverty" it was a wonderful typical small city with plenty of industry, a bustling downtown, and a great place to work and live. But like thousands of other towns and cities it has been destroyed by liberal political policies .
At one time Camden had a very big shipbuilding industry but it pretty much closed down in the late 1960's.
I met people from families that had lived there for generations but they have been forced to move out by the wave of criminals, bums, moochers, illegals, etc.
The very nice downtown area deteriorated into a welfare dispensing point and it wasn't safe to be there alone, night or day.
New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, NJ circa 1950
The photo that you posted brings back fond memories. I worked at NYS in 1965-1967 as a nuclear engineer fresh out of college. I worked on the “TRUXTUN”, DLG(N)-35,which was a nuclear frigate.All of the people that I met and worked with at New York Ship were friendly, competent and hard working. The shipyard folded because the value of the outstanding common stock was less than the value of the physical plant. Speculators swooped in, purchased all of the stock and then sold off all of the machinery and the land. It is interesting that your photo dates from before the time that a drydock was constructed just north of Newton Creek. The drydock was immense and built to support construction of the supercarrier U.S.S. KITTYHAWK, CVA-63. Here is an intertesting valid (I think) factoid about NYS. During WW II, NYS had the highest employment level of any shipyard in the United States -— a reported 42,000 employees working three shifts, seven days per week to support the war effort.
