Passaic

Formed February 7, 1837 (16^th county)

Passaic County (525,052), Paterson (159,759)

A Modern 1968 concrete and glass building is the county courthouse.  The courthouse is located on Hamilton Avenue at Main Street.  Interstate Highway 80 is 11 blocks south of the courthouse.  Neil S. Greydanus is the courthouse architect.  Lady Justice sits on top of the building’s dome.  In 1994 and Administrative Building was added.  Passaic County was organized on February 7, 1837 from Bergen and Essex counties as the 16^th county.  Paterson has always been the county seat.  The county is named for the Passaic River whose name is Native American for “valley.”  The county seat is named for Governor William Paterson. 

Passaic County government consists of an executive, a sheriff, an administrator and a clerk (executive).  It has 7 Commissioners (legislative.)  Twenty-one Superior Court Judges and a prosecutor serve Passaic County (judicial.)  Passaic County is in northeast New Jersey.  Newark, New Jersey is south and New York, New York is southeast of the county.  It borders New York to its north.  The county center is 10.7 miles Northwest of Paterson in Pompton Lakes.  The county is surrounded clockwise by New York and Bergen, Essex, Morris, and Sussex counties. 

The area of the county is 185 square miles.  It is 18 out of 21 in the state.  It ranks 8 out of 21 in population in the state.  It has a density of 2838.1 persons per square mile making it 5 out of 21 in the state.  Passaic County has 82.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 80 crosses east to west through the county from Bergen County to Morris County.  United States Highway 46 parallels Interstate Highway 80 from Bergen to Morris counties.  United States Highway 202 originates and heads southwest into Morris County.  The county resembles a deformed hourglass.  Paterson is located in the southeast corner of the county.  Paterson is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 30.4% of the county population.  The county is pronounced PA-SAE-IK.  This county is in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.