Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades.

Fort Lee's population and housing density has increased considerably since the 1960s and 1970s with the construction of highrise apartment buildings.

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Coytesville, Linwood,[24][25] Palisade and Taylorville.

[28][29][30] Given its evolving cosmopolitan ambiance[31] and adjacency to Manhattan across the George Washington Bridge, Fort Lee, one of the Hudson Waterfront communities of northern New Jersey, has been called a sixth borough of New York City.

It was during Washington's retreat in November 1776 (beginning along a road which is now Main Street) that Thomas Paine composed his pamphlet, The American Crisis, which began with the recognized phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Fort Lee was formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29, 1904, from the remaining portions of Ridgefield Township.

[37] The Fort Lee Police Department was formed under borough ordinance on August 9, 1904, and originally consisted of six marshals.

[38] The history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast, where, at one time, Fort Lee was the motion picture capital of America.

The industry got its start in the state at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edison's "Black Maria", the first motion picture studio, in West Orange, New Jersey.

[43][44][45] With the offshoot businesses that sprang up to service the film studios, for nearly two decades Fort Lee experienced unrivaled prosperity.

California's more temperate climate enabled year-round filming and led to the eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s.

[47] In nearby Little Ferry on July 9, 1937, a major fire broke out in a 20th Century-Fox storage facility containing hazardous extremely flammable nitrate film reels.

[49] In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks.

Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry?

[51] The additional claim that the small cinema handled 45,699 visitors in six weeks has led people to believe that Vicary actually did not conduct his experiment at all.

A substantial number of affluent and educated Korean American professionals have settled in Bergen County since the early 2000s and have founded various academic and communally supportive organizations, including the Korean Parent Partnership Organization at the Bergen County Academies magnet high school and The Korean-American Association of New Jersey.

Approximately 130 Korean stores were counted in downtown Fort Lee in 2000,[54] a number which has risen significantly since then, featuring restaurants and karaoke (noraebang) bars, grocery markets, education centers and bookstores, banking institutions, offices, electronics vendors, apparel boutiques, and other commercial enterprises.

Various Korean American groups could not reach consensus on the design and wording for a monument in Fort Lee as of early April 2013 to the memory of comfort women, tens of thousands of women and girls, many Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

[67] One of the reasons suggested for these actions was to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for not supporting the Republican Chris Christie in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election.

[77] Along with Koreatowns in New York City and Long Island, the Bergen County Koreatowns serve as the nexus for an overall Korean American population of 218,764 individuals in the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area,[78] the second largest population of ethnic Koreans outside of Korea.

[87] There were 1,119 Fort Lee residents who filed claims to recover lost money from the Madoff investment scandal, the most from any ZIP code.

The group now performs regularly at Monument Park (1588 Palisade Avenue, next to the Fort Lee Museum) with two Tuesday shows per month during the summer.

[102] Korean cafés have become a major cultural element within Fort Lee's Koreatown, not only for the coffee, bingsu (shaved ice), and pastries, but also as communal gathering places.

[105][106] As of 2024[update], the mayor of Fort Lee is Democrat Mark Sokolich, whose term of office ends December 31, 2027.

[3][107][108][109][110][111] In November 2022, the borough council appointed Bryan Drumgoole to fill the seat expiring in December 2023 that had been held by Michael Sargenti until he resigned from office.

As of 2025[update], the county executive is James J. Tedesco III (D, Paramus), whose four-year term of office ends December 31, 2026.

[121] Bergen County's Commissioners are: Thomas J. Sullivan Jr. (D, Montvale, 2025),[122] Chair Germaine M. Ortiz (D, Emerson, 2025),[123] Joan Voss (D, Fort Lee, 2026),[124] Vice Chair Mary J. Amoroso (D, Mahwah, 2025),[125] Rafael Marte (D, Bergenfield, 2026),[126] Steven A. Tanelli (D, North Arlington, 2027)[127] and Tracy Silna Zur (D, Franklin Lakes, 2027).

[128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135] Bergen County's constitutional officials are: Clerk John S. Hogan (D, Northvale, 2026),[136][137] Sheriff Anthony Cureton (D, Englewood, 2027)[138][139] and Surrogate Michael R. Dressler (D, Cresskill, 2026).

The Fort Lee Volunteer Ambulance Corps responds to approximately 3,400 emergency medical calls annually.

[198] The George Washington Bridge (GWB), at 604 ft (184 m) meters in height as measured from its base, is the tallest structure in Fort Lee.