She was laid down at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, in May 1902, launched in November 1904, and commissioned into the fleet in May 1906.

As was standard for capital ships of the period, New Jersey carried four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

[2][3] New Jersey began her initial training in the Atlantic and Caribbean, which was interrupted by a naval review for President Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay in September.

An international fleet that included British, French, German, Japanese, and Austro-Hungarian warships joined the US Navy at the event.

[4] New Jersey joined the Great White Fleet on 16 December 1907, when they departed Hampton Roads to begin their circumnavigation of the globe.

The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.

[7] After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama, which helped to defuse tensions between the two countries.

The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles (86,542 km; 53,775 mi).

During this period, she spent a year out of commission at Boston from 2 May 1910 to 15 July 1911, and in the summers of 1912 and 1913, she conducted training cruises for midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy.

On 13 August, New Jersey departed Mexican waters and steamed to Santo Domingo, where unrest gripped both the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

In November 1918, Germany signed the Armistice that ended the war; New Jersey was thereafter used to transport American soldiers back from Europe.

New Jersey, along with her sister Virginia and the battleship Alabama were allocated for weapons tests conducted with the US Army Air Service, under the supervision of General Billy Mitchell.

[3][9] The bombing tests against New Jersey were conducted on 5 September 1923 in the Atlantic Ocean off Diamond Shoals, North Carolina,[10] by Martin NBS-1 bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group.

Four of the NBS-1s attacked New Jersey with 600-pound (270 kg) bombs at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m), scoring four hits and several near-misses, which caused significant flooding.