At the time of European colonization the area was the territory of Hackensack tribe of the Lenape Native Americans,[22] who maintained a settlement, Espatingh, on the west side of the hills[23][24][25] and where a Dutch trading post was established after the Peach War.

[26] 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.

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.

[37][38] 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.

[39] 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.

[47][48] Bergenline Avenue, a broad street which accommodated the North Hudson County Railway streetcars[49] to Nungesser's became (and remains) an important commercial and transit corridor.

[51] At the time of its construction in 1949, the 760-foot (230 m) WOR TV Tower, in the midst of the residential Woodcliff Section,[52] was the tenth-tallest man-made structure in the world.

[53][54][55] The tower was dismantled in 1956 but in 1967, about half a mile (2500 m) to the east, the 34-story, 369-foot (112 m) Stonehenge apartment building was constructed on the tip of the Palisades.

[56] 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.

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.

[59] 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.

When the municipalities along the Hudson River (what are now Guttenberg, West New York, Union City and Weehawken) broke away, it left North Bergen roughly an inverted "L", or "axe-shaped".

[62] Its northern section stretches east–west and is south of the Bergen County communities of Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Fairview and Ridgefield.

To the east, the Hudson River creates the shared border with the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

The cuesta, or slope, on its west side makes North Bergen the city with the second-most hills per square mile in the United States after San Francisco,[66] some of which are extremely steep.

The unusual shape and diverse topography of North Bergen have created diverse historical and contemporary neighborhoods: Other historical unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Homestead,[74][75] Granton, Hudson Heights, New Durham, Shadyside, Three Pigeons[citation needed] and Tyler Park.

This may be due to the layout of the county in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with North Bergen having more land than its more densely populated neighbors, which had to bury their dead outside of town.

[96] New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway operates five intermodal freight transport facilities within the township.

After each election, each individual is assigned to head one of the five commissions and the commissioners select one of their members to serve as mayor.

[4][106][107][108][109] After serving as Township Clerk from 1971 to 1979, Joseph Mocco was arrested on August 7, 1986, on charges of illegally dumping tons of construction material within North Bergen and other nearby communities.

[111] In February 2004, Peter Perez, former commissioner in charge of Parks and Recreation, was sentenced to serve six months in a federal prison for accepting kickbacks and bribes from a contractor who had several business contracts with the township.

[113] On September 11, 2012, North Bergen's Superintendent of the Department of Public Works James Wiley pleaded guilty to one count of second degree conspiracy to commit official misconduct.

[122] For the 2024–2025 session, the 33rd legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Brian P. Stack (D, Union City) and in the General Assembly by Julio Marenco (D, North Bergen) and Gabe Rodriguez (D, West New York).

[173] NHRFR and North Bergen Emergency Medical Services (headquartered at 63rd Street and Granton Avenue) were among the many Hudson County agencies that responded to the January 2009 crash of Flight 1549, as did Palisades Medical Center, where 57 of the survivors were treated for injuries.

[203] Bus service is provided along busy north–south corridors on Kennedy Boulevard, Bergenline Avenue, and Boulevard East by NJ Transit and privately operated dollar vans within Hudson County, and to Bergen and Manhattan, New York City.

[207][208] North Bergen is located within the New York media market, with most of its daily papers available for sale or delivery.

In the late 2000s, North Bergen, Weehawken, Union City, Guttenberg, and West New York came to be dubbed collectively as "NoHu", a North Hudson haven for local performing and fine artists, many of whom are immigrants from Latin America and other countries, in part due to lower housing costs compared to those in nearby art havens such as Hoboken, Jersey City and Manhattan.