A new national park may emerge from a small patch of lush oasis just 15 miles from Manhattan in northeastern New Jersey's industrial mecca.I'm not entirely sure I'd call this a lush oasis in the middle of an industrial mecca, primarily because the industry has left the region, leaving stark reminders of what once was. Paterson is known as the Silk City because of the silk factories that lined the Passaic River, and they're all gone, replaced by crumbling factories or empty lots. The Great Falls remain as a stark reminder of the beauty of the region and as a testament to what drew Alexander Hamilton to remark on the possibility of using the falls to generate power.
The U.S. house passed a bill Wednesday that designates Paterson's Great Falls as a national park. It now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it as early as next week.
The bill comes two years after the National Park Service, under the Bush administration, declined to recommend protected status for the Great Falls.
The state has sought national park status for the 77-foot waterfall for years, in hopes that doing so would help attract more visitors to the site. The Great Falls is the second largest waterfall on the East Coast.
A national park designation would also make the area eligible for millions of dollars in federal funds. Exactly how much the state will get to run the park has yet to be determined.
The national park designation is due to the hard work of NJ Rep. Bill Pascrell, who has sought to get the designation for years.
The falls are truly a wonder to behold and hopefully the national park system will find the money to make that happen. The problem, however, is that there isn't any money for a new national park, let alone all the existing national parks. This will stretch the system even thinner than it already is. The designation may be a hollow victory.
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