An ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other.

New York City, according to the famous writer O. Henry, has "an ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other."

August 1904, McClure's Magazine, "A Tempered Wind" by O. Henry, pg. 353:
You'd think New York people was all wise, but no. They don't get a chance to learn. Everything's too compressed. Even the hay-seeds are baled hay-seeds. But what else can you expect from a town that's shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other?