PATERSON, a town of the United States of North America, in the state of New Jersey, stands on the right bank of the Passaic River, 13 miles N. of Newark, and 17 N.W. of New York. The streets are straight and well paved, and the houses substantially built. There are about eighteen churches, belonging to various sects, and some of them are edifices of much elegance. There are also a court-house, jail, two banks, several schools, a philosophical society with a library, and a mechanics' institution. The manufactures of the place are extensive. There are about twenty cotton factories, several dyeing and printing establishments, two large manufactures of locomotives, besides paper-mills, fulling-mills, foundries, &c. Paterson is thus one of the principal manufacturing towns in the States; and in New Jersey it is second only to Newark. Immediately above the town the Passaic falls over a precipice 50 feet high. This forms, during the time of flood, a magnificent spectacle. A great part of the water is carried off by a canal into a basin, from which, by different channels, it is conveyed to the various mills of the town. Paterson is connected by railway with New York, and by canal with
Paterson. the Atlantic. On the opposite side of the river, which is crossed by two bridges, stands the village of Manchester. Paterson was originally founded in 1791 by a company for the manufacture of cotton; and although it had to be abandoned soon afterwards, the original design was subsequently carried out. Pop. (1850) 11,338; (1853) about 13,000.