Colonial era At the time of European colonization the area was the territory of
Hackensack tribe of the
Lenape Native Americans, who maintained a settlement, Espatingh, on the west side of the hills and where a Dutch
trading post was established after the
Peach War. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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). 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. 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.
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". The roadway is now known by its two sections:
Kennedy Boulevard and
Boulevard East. Residential districts along and between the two boulevards were developed.
Bergenline Avenue, a broad street which accommodated the
North Hudson County Railway streetcars 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. It closed in 1966. At the time of its construction in 1949, the
WOR TV Tower, in the midst of the residential
Woodcliff Section, was the tenth-tallest man-made structure in the world. 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. In the early 1960s two notable
paleontological finds of
fossils from the
Newark Basin were made near the foot of the cliffs at one of several former quarries, the Granton, of which today's avenue is a namesake. The former
quarry remained an
archeological site until at least 1980. North Hudson Park was renamed the
James J. Braddock North Hudson County Park. In 1935, while living in North Bergen, local hero
James J. Braddock won the
world heavyweight championship in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history. In contrast to other Hudson County communities during the latter half of the century, North Bergen grew significantly in population. Many residents are part of the wave of
Spanish language speakers which had begun in the 1960s with Cuban
émigrés, leading to the nickname,
Havana on the Hudson. ==Geography==