Yesterday I had to drop something off in Passaic NJ, so instead of leaving my kids home with nothing to do but fight, I took them with me. Then I planned a small trip to a nearby town. I was very excited, because I found something that I had no idea existed!!! It's a waterfall in Patterson NJ. Think Beirut with a natural wonder smack in the middle. OK, that's a little harsh. Patterson isn't that bad, at least certain parts of it... It's more like East Baltimore, Newark, Detroit.
There's a nice downtown area, it's bustling and reminded me a lot of upper Manhattan. Before we drove around there, we went to the Great Falls. These falls had a lot to do with the industrialization of this area.
In 1791, Alexander Hamilton and a group of investors created the S.U.M., the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, to harness the tremendous power of the Passaic Great Falls. They hired Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the largest, most significant power system at that time, one that diverted water from the Passaic River above the falls to mills along its route. Hamilton envisioned an industrialized America and the creation of this raceway system was his ambitious example of how corporations could be organized to develop manufacturing on a large scale. Although the S.U.M failed to realize its manufacturing objectives, it did succeed in developing real estate and supplying power to the growing number of various industries that were building factories around the area of the Great Falls. The industries that ultimately emerged produced textile machinery, steam locomotives, silk weaving and dyeing, revolvers, aircraft engines, and various other products. (culled from various websites)
Now, the following is a statement made on various sites about the falls:
The Great Falls are the second-highest on the east coast (second only to Niagara). The Great Falls thunders over a rocky ledge, 70 feet deep, about 60 feet wide to a broad basin descending 20 feet through traprock and sandstone to the City of Paterson.
They're big and they're nice, but my friend is in the Finger Lakes, and went to a 250 foot falls yesterday, so I think it may be a boast about volume, more then about height.
Either way, if you can block out the blight just a few blocks away, there's an oasis of beauty in the middle of the urban landsscape.
3 comments:
very cool to think this is found in the middle of Patterson of all places. How beautiful.
Wow!
Thats nice :). (Great shots too)
How far is that from me?
It's about a 25 minute drive from you. I don't know that it's worth it on its own, maybe coupled with something else. The Patterson museum looked cool, and I'm sue there's other things to do in the area.
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