A prominent mill town within the New York—New Jersey metropolitan area , Paterson has been known as Silk City for its once-dominant role in silk production during the latter half of 19th century.
Paterson has the nation's second-largest per capita Muslim population. The land was known as the Lenapehoking. The society founded Paterson, which became the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in America. Architect , engineer and city planner Pierre L'Enfant — , who had earlier developed the initial plans for Washington, D. The society's directors felt he was taking too long and was over budget; he was replaced by Peter Colt, who used a less complicated reservoir system to get the water flowing to factories in Eventually, Colt's system developed some problems and a scheme resembling L'Enfant's original plan was used after Paterson was originally formed as a township from portions of Acquackanonk Township on April 11, , while the area was still part of Essex County.
It became part of the newly created Passaic County on February 7, , and was incorporated as a city on April 14, , based on the results of a referendum held that day. The city was reincorporated on March 14, The foot-high 23 m Great Falls and a system of water raceways that harnessed the falls' power provided power for the mills in the area until and fostered growth of the city.
In the latter half of the 19th century, silk production became the dominant industry and formed the basis of Paterson's most prosperous period, earning it the nickname "Silk City. In , Samuel Colt began producing firearms in Paterson, but within a few years he moved his business to Hartford, Connecticut. Later in the 19th century, Paterson was the site of early experiments with submarines by Irish-American inventor John Philip Holland.
Behind Newark and New York, the brewing industry was booming in Paterson in the late s. Hinchliffe Brewing and Malting Company , founded in , produced 75, barrels a year from its state-of-the-art facility at 63 Governor Street.
