Paterson

City of northeast New Jersey, USA, on the Passaic River; population (2000) 149,200. It is part of the industrial and residential conurbation of Paterson-Clifton-Passaic. First settled 1771 by American revolutionaries, Paterson developed as an important centre of the textile industry owing to the water power available from the Passaic Falls. It produces machinery and chemicals, and attracts visitors to the falls.

Paterson was selected as the site of an industrial settlement in 1791, when Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the Treasury, was seeking to promote American manufacture and to free the USA from dependence on European suppliers. Paterson specialized in silks, and neighbouring Passaic in handkerchiefs. When these trades declined, the two cities switched to the manufacture of mill machinery and to associated industries, such as dyeing and the making of electrical equipment.