Another one of the stops on my New Jersey Sopranos tour was Paterson Falls.\u00a0 Although only about 40 miles or so from where I grew up, I’d never been there.<\/p>\n
I knew of the town, though.\u00a0 It’s an old industrial village with waterfalls, which meant that in the early days of our country it was perfect for industrial development. The falls provided hydraulic power, and that could be used to drive machinery.\u00a0 Indeed, it’s where Samuel Colt built his first run of revolvers, which are known (not surprisingly) as Paterson Colts.\u00a0 Paterson was established as the nation’s first planned industrial city in 1792, with its readily-available hydraulic power and close proximity to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 Paterson manufactured silk cloth, steam locomotives, textiles, paper, firearms, and aircraft engines.\u00a0 \u00a0 It is centered on the Passaic River, which flows into Newark Bay and from there to the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
The Passaic Falls are contained within the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park, which is (as the name implies) part of the U.S. National Park system.\u00a0 All this was news to me, which is kind of amazing when you consider that I grew up a short 40 miles to the south.\u00a0 I’d never known any of this, and to learn about it at my age was surprising.\u00a0 I’ll give the credit for that to David Chase (the guy who created The Sopranos<\/em>).\u00a0 Had that show not sparked my interest, I’d still be ignorant.<\/p>\n So, let’s move on to the scene in The Sopranos<\/em> that caught my attention.\u00a0 It’s the episode in which Mikey Palmici (Uncle Junior’s driver and bodyguard) throws a drug dealer off the bridge over the Passaic Falls:<\/p>\n