North Hudson, New Jersey
[11] The towns and adjacent areas have been known as "The Home of the American Embroidery Industry",[12][13] the silk center of the nation,[14] and "Havana on the Hudson".
[39] Mostly situated atop the Palisades on the Hudson Waterfront on the west bank of the Hudson River, the area is directly across from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side in New York City, north of Hoboken and Jersey City[citation needed] (the county seat), and east of the New Jersey Meadowlands.
The cuesta, or slope, on the west side of area makes North Bergen the city with the second most hills per square mile in the United States after San Francisco.
[44] In the early 1900s the idea of the all towns consolidating emerged and subsided,[48][49][50] Eventually West Hoboken and Union Hill merged in 1925.
The portion of that land that included the future Hudson County was purchased from members of the Hackensack tribe of the Lenni-Lenape and became part of Pavonia, New Netherland.
[61] The relationship between the early Dutch settlers and Native Americans was marked by frequent armed conflict over land claims.
North of this was the unpopulated Bergen Woods, which would later be claimed by settlers, after whom a number of Union City streets today are named,[63] Like most of the New York metropolitan area, North Hudson experienced waves of immigration, specifically: settlers from the Netherlands, British colonialists, German-speaking farmers and entrepreneurs, Irish fleeing the famine, "Ellis Islanders", World Wars refugees, the "Spanish" (initially Cuban immigrants, and later other South and Central Americans),[67] and most recently, so-called "cosmopolitans" including individuals and childless families, yuppies, retirees, gay men and women, newlyweds, house-sharers, and rent refugees from less gentrified areas.
[69] They, along with Swiss and Austrian immigrants, imported machines and founded the Schiffli lace making industries, for which they were famous, and the region became the "embroidery capitol of the United States",[12][13] as well as the silk center of the nation.
Simultaneously middle-class and professional Cubans, fleeing the revolution in their home country, re-located to the area[74][75] and are generally considered to have "saved" it from a devastating downward spiral, leading to the nickname "Havana on the Hudson".
From its terminal in Weehawken the West Shore Railroad operated long-distance and commuter passenger train and ferry service (used by travellers and locals alike),[87][88] from 1884 to 1959.
[89] NY Waterway re-instituted ferry service in the late 1980s, and in 2006 opened a state-of-art terminal on the Waterfront for boats traversing the Hudson to Lower and Midtown Manhattan.
[90] New Jersey Transit, since its opening, has promoted Bergenline Station as a hub/transfer between the light rail and buses: 22, 84, 86, 89, 156, 159, 181 and (one block west on JFK Boulevard) 88, 154.
Additionally there are many privately operated licensed mini-buses locally known as immi-vans, gua-guas, carritos, or dollar buses along Bergenline to Journal Square, Downtown Jersey City, 42nd Street in Manhattan, and south east Bergen County, and Paterson.
