North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 63,361, an increase of 2,588 (+4.3%) from the 2010 census count of 60,773, which in turn reflected an increase of 2,681 (+4.6%) from the 58,092 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010 , New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023. The township was incorporated in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by a series of secessions. Situated on the Hudson Palisades, it is one of the hilliest municipalities in the United States.LaMarca, Stephen. "Resident to show unique North Bergen photos; Magician, author has high hopes for exhibit" , The Hudson Reporter, November 3, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2012. "'North Bergen is the second hilliest town in the country,' said Lepore. 'I thought it'd be funny to write a quirky little book about the hills of North Bergen.' Due to the unavailability of statistics on the slopes of hills, Lepore contacted an engineer to determine how he could measure the hills with just a level and a ruler himself." Like neighboring North Hudson communities, North Bergen is among those places in the country with the highest population density.
History Colonial era At the time of European colonization the area was the territory of Hackensack tribe of the Lenape Native Americans,Wright, Kevin W. The Indigenous Population of Bergen County , Bergen County Historical Society. Accessed March 20, 2015. who maintained a settlement, Espatingh, on the west side of the hills History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time and where a Dutch trading post was established after the Peach War.Clayton, W. Woodford; and Nelson, William. "History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey" , p. 23. Everts & Peck, 1882. Accessed September 10, 2015. In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, then Director-General of New Netherland, repurchased from them the area now encompassed by the municipalities of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River. This is commemorated in a New Deal post off mural entitled Purchase of Territory of North Bergen from the Indians. In 1660 Stuyvesant granted permission to establish the semi-autonomous colony of Bergen, with the main village located at today's Bergen Square, considered to be the first chartered municipality in what would become the state of New Jersey.Bergen Township: Original boundaries included most of present-day Hudson County, East of Newark Bay and the Hackensack River. , New Jersey City University. Accessed December 22, 2011. "The village of Bergen, officially begun on September 5, 1661, is regarded as New Jersey's first permanent settlement and the state's first local civil government. It is now part of the City of Jersey City." At the time, the area of North Bergen was heavily forested, traversed by paths used by the indigenous and colonizing population and became known as Bergen Woods, a name recalled in today's neighborhood of Bergenwood.
After the 1664 surrender of Fort Amsterdam the entire New Netherland colony came into the possession of the British, who established the Province of New Jersey. In 1682, the East Jersey legislature formed the state's first four counties, including Bergen County, which consisted of all the land in the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers; that is, the eastern portions of what today is Bergen and Hudson Counties.Clayton, W. Woodford; and Nelson, William. History of Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, p. 80. Everts & Peck, 1882. Accessed December 22, 2011 "IN December, 1682, the Assembly of East Jersey passed an act dividing the province into four counties, viz.: Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth. Bergen included all of the settlements between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and extended to the northern boundary of the province." In 1693, Bergen County was divided into two townships: Hackensack Township in the north, and Bergen Township, encompassing the Bergen Neck peninsula, in the south. The border between the two townships is the current Hudson-Bergen county line.
While settlement was sparse, communities developed along the Bergen Turnpike at the Three Pigeons and Maisland, later New Durham. French botanist André Michaux developed his gardens nearby. On the Hudson River, Bulls Ferry became an important landing for crossings to Manhattan. While ostensibly under British control during the American Revolutionary War, the area was patrolled by the Americans on foraging, espionage, and raiding expeditions, most notably the Battle of Bull's Ferry.
Toponymy, secession, and urbanization On February 22, 1838, Jersey City was incorporated as a separate municipality,Winfield, Charles Hardenburg. "History of the county of Hudson, New Jersey: from its earliest settlement", p. 289. Kennard & Hay Stationery M'fg and Print. Co., 1874. Accessed December 22, 2011. and in 1840 Hudson County, comprising the city and Bergen Township, was created from the southern portion of Bergen County. North Bergen was incorporated as a township on April 10, 1843, by an act of the New Jersey Legislature, from the northern portion of Bergen Township. At the time, the town included everything east of the Hackensack River and north of and including what is now Jersey City Heights.
The entire region that is now known as North Hudson experienced massive immigration and urbanization during the latter half of the 19th century, and led to the creation of various new towns. Portions of the North Bergen were taken to form Hoboken Township (April 9, 1849, now the City of Hoboken), Hudson Town (April 12, 1852, later part of Hudson City), Hudson City (April 11, 1855, later merged with Jersey City), Guttenberg (formed within the township on March 9, 1859, and set off as an independent municipality on April 1, 1878), Weehawken (March 15, 1859), Union Township and West Hoboken Township (both created on February 28, 1861), Union Hill town (March 29, 1864) and Secaucus (March 12, 1900).Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 145. Accessed May 30, 2024. During this era many of Hudson County's cemeteries were developed along the town's western slope of the Hudson Palisades.
At their foot in the Meadowlands, the Erie, the New York, Susquehanna and Western and the West Shore railroads ran right-of-ways to their terminals on the Hudson, the last building its tunnel through Bergen Hill at North Bergen."Design And Construction Of The Weehawken Tunnel And Bergenline Avenue Station For The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System" , Transportation Research Board, accessed May 10, 2011. The area was important destination during peak German immigration to the United States and is recalled today in Schuetzen Park, founded in 1874. Further north, Nungesser's Guttenberg Racetrack became a notable and notorious destination which, after its closing, became a proving ground for new technologies: the automobile and the airplane.Ractrack "Winter Racing at New Jersey's Guttenberg Race Track, 1885–1893" , Colin's Ghost: Thoroughbred Racing History, January 28, 2010.Ryall, G. F. T. "The Race Track" , The New Yorker, December 14, 1957. Accessed July 4, 2018."Fire Ends Old Guttenburg.; Blaze Seen from Manhattan Destroys the Clubhouse, Latterly on Inn" , The New York Times, January 16, 1910. Accessed November 13, 2019."Three Planes Fall; One Beheads A Boy; Former Army Pilots Arrested After Their Propeller Kills Jersey Lad at Play. Biplane Engine Goes Dead Lieut. Stinson Lands in Flatbush Lettuce Patch—A Coney Island Mishap" , The New York Times, July 8, 1921. Accessed November 13, 2019."Morok's Aeroplane Interrupts Toilet; Trans-Hudson Flyer's Machine Comes to Grief in a Young Woman's Window " , The New York Times, December 27, 1910. Accessed July 4, 2018."Bandit Robs a Train" , The New York Times, December 26, 1910. Accessed November 13, 2019.
20th century The development of Hudson County Boulevard, which skirts around the west, north and east of North Bergen, was completed in the early 20th century. By 1913 it was considered to be fine for "motoring"."Short Runs Near Town Pleasant Now" , The New York Times, March 23, 1913. Accessed July 4, 2018. The roadway is now known by its two sections: Kennedy Boulevard and Boulevard East.
Residential districts along and between the two boulevards were developed."The Hudson Boulevard; The old and the New – The Opposition and the Proposed Route" , The New York Times, August 12, 1873. Accessed July 4, 2018."Opening the Boulevard; Wheelmen Parade Along Hudson County's New Driveway" , The New York Times, November 29, 1895. Accessed July 4, 2018. Bergenline Avenue, a broad street which accommodated the North Hudson County Railway streetcars"New Developments Beyond the Palisades" , The New York Times, June 20, 1909. Accessed July 4, 2018. to Nungesser's became (and remains) an important commercial and transit corridor. The two boulevard sections met at Bergenline Avenue, at the northwest corner of North Hudson/Braddock Park.
Soon after the opening of the Lincoln Tunnel Approach, the Susquehanna Transfer was opened in August 1939 to accommodate passengers who wished to transfer to buses through the tunnel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.Staff. "Bus-Rail Service Draws Commuters; The Susquehanna Encouraged by Experiment as Business Improves on 2d Day Travel Time Is Reduced Company Will Connect With More Terminals in City Should Trend Continue" , The New York Times, August 3, 1939. Accessed July 4, 2018. "Seventy-seven passengers crossed the platform of a new station known as Susquehanna Transfer, near Bergen, N. J., to Manhattan-bound buses yesterday, the second day of the operation of the new service ... The new station is under the elevated highway leading from the Lincoln Tunnel over the Jersey marshes." It closed in 1966."Commuter rail line's revival pushed" , The Record, December 30, 1986. Accessed March 1, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "The second possibility would be to run the trains through Paterson on Susquehanna tracks to Weehawken, where passengers would switch to buses for the ride through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Port Authority terminal. A similar bus service, known as the Susquehanna Transfer, operated between 1939 and 1966."
At the time of its construction in 1949, the WOR TV Tower, in the midst of the residential Woodcliff Section,Staff. "WOR Television Tower To Be in North Bergen" , copy of article from The Jersey Journal, June 8, 1948. Accessed January 1, 2015. was the tenth-tallest man-made structure in the world.WOR-TV and FM Transmitter in North Bergen, NJ , accessed January 25, 2011"Bombs Strike Two Cars; Two Babies Among the Injured in Attack on West Shore Train. Panic Spreads Quickly Engineer Keeps On Until Emergency Cord Is Pulled After Second Attack. Darkness Adds to Terror Third Missile Explodes as TrainIs Brought to a Halt NearTrestle at Granton, N.J." , The New York Times, August 14, 1922. Accessed November 13, 2019."Science: First Flight" , Time, April 14, 1961. Accessed November 13, 2019. The tower was dismantled in 1956 but in 1967, about half a mile (2500 m) to the east, the 34-story, Stonehenge apartment building was constructed on the tip of the Palisades..