Every single day, the Passaic River sends two million gallons of water over the 77-foot summit of the Great Falls in Paterson. It is a sight to behold–the power of rushing water, the rising of rainbowed mists, the swirling and eddying of pools and flows–in the very heart of a town most associated with…the Industrial Revolution.  Who says New Jersey doesn’t know how to mix it up?

The falls were carved out of the 200-million year old basalt by some antsy glaciers about 13,000 years ago.  The Lenape Native Americans hung around for awhile, and then in 1792 the city was established when William Paterson (NJ Governor and signer of the Constitution) put his John Hancock (hehe) on the town charter.

Alexander Hamilton, while serving as Secretary of the Treasury under our fave prez George Washington, founded a group called the The Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufacturers (SUM).  Despite its sound, SUM was neither from a Monty Python skit nor from a low-budget espionage film.  It was, in fact, an organization to shape how to best harness the energy of Great Falls and in doing so facilitate greater economic independence from Britain. One of its chief members was the guy who designed basically the entire city of Washington DC, Peter Charles L’Enfant.

Through the construction of complex systems of water raceways and reservoirs, the waterfall’s power was used to fuel manufacturing mills for textiles (silk chief among them), firearms and locomotives. Paterson began to decline around the end of World War II, and though it is New Jersey’s third largest city (who would have guessed?), remains economically depressed. The Great Falls, declared a National Park in 2011, are one hope for revitalization of the area.

We visited on a freezing cold winter weekend, knowing little about the site except that it was once featured in a certain tv show that shall not be named. The park seems almost unreal.  You drive through the center of Paterson and at an otherwise unremarkable intersection there is a sign for the park, and almost immediately thereafter the spectacular falls come into view. Perhaps the cold kept people away that day, for the small parking lot was almost empty and the number of visitors walking around, photographing and gawking was countable on one hand.  In a word: perfect.

The falls are awesome (east of the Mississippi River, they are second only to Niagara Falls in water volume) and the footpaths and bridges allow you to get very close to the falls from various vantage points. The site is completely unexpected and unique, as only New Jersey could muster. Truly a must-see.

After an extended visit at Great Falls, we drove a short distance down the highway to another Paterson-area landmark: Lambert Castle. Englishman Catholina Lambert came to the US at age 17. Within a decade, he’d become successful in the silk manufacturing industry and married into a well-heeled American family. Like any good business baron, he had multiple residences in New York City, but eventually was compelled to commission the building of an estate near the mills he controlled in Paterson. His life was full of tragedy, including mysterious deaths, natural disasters and ruinous bankruptcies–you can read the full story here.

The castle is yet another incongruity in the Paterson landscape, which only adds to its colorful character. The rounded turrets, the battlements, the arched doorways and wrought iron gates (if not the police K9 training unit next door) all harken back to Lambert’s origins in Yorkshire. We were low on cash that day, so didn’t take the $10 tour, but from what we saw when warming ourselves in the entryway, the interior and art collection appeared to warrant a future visit with the necessary funding.

The grounds surrounding Lambert Castle, known as the Garrett Mountain Reserve and Rifle Camp Park, are home to jogging trails, picnic areas, an astronomical observatory, and panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. Perhaps it was the cold weather, but we encountered very few people at this site as well, which was…just as well.  The observatory was not open, so we walked around the grounds and took in the vista of NYC.  Then, as per usual, it was off to find food…