In design, she succeeded the "ABC" cruisers Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago with better protection, higher speed, and a uniform 6-inch gun armament.

Rear Admiral Edward Simpson, president of the Naval Advisory Board, commented that it was impossible to mount 8-inch guns on sponsons in a 4,000-ton ship.

[2] Newark operated off the Atlantic coast for ten months, taking part in maneuvers and exercises until detached on 8 December at Norfolk Navy Yard.

[3] Newark next sailed on 20 September, this time for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to protect American interests, arriving on 20 October and remaining until 1 April 1894.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Station on 4 May, she joined her squadron at New York 25 June and engaged in patrol duty and exercises off the southeastern coast until decommissioning at Norfolk 6 March 1897.

Cruising in Cuban waters throughout the summer, the warship bombarded the port of Manzanillo on 12 August and on the following day accepted its surrender.

After the battle of Santiago de Cuba, she participated in the final destruction of Admiral Cervera's fleet through bombardment of the burned hulks.

[3] Departing New York on 23 March 1899, the cruiser steamed down the coast of South America on patrol, stopping at numerous ports along the way.

The warship took station off Vigan, Luzon, landed troops for garrison duty, then moved on to Aparri on 10 December, receiving the surrender of insurrectionists in the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, and Bataan.

The ship then hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral Louis Kempff, Assistant-Commander of the Asiatic Station and sailed on 20 May for China to help land reinforcements to relieve the legations under siege by the Boxers at Peking.

Arriving Tientsin on 22 May, Newark operated in that port and out of Taku and Chefoo, protecting American interests and aiding the relief expedition under Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, R.N., until sailing at the end of July for Kure, Japan, and then Cavite where she hoisted the pennant of the Senior Squadron Commander in the Philippines.

Returning to Norfolk briefly on 27 October 1904 to 9 January 1905, she resumed her duties in the West Indies for the first six months of the year and then in June, following exercises off Virginia, was assigned as a training ship to the United States Naval Academy.