A successful enterprise, SUM ultimately sold waterpower and building space to private manufacturers. The earliest industries were cotton mills (1794), and in 1828 Paterson mechanics joined mill workers in the first recorded sympathy strike in the United States. Samuel Colt (Colt, Samuel) produced his first revolvers at the Old Gun Mill (preserved) in 1836. By 1837, when the locomotive industry was established, machine manufacturing had become important. Paterson was producing four-fifths of all locomotives made in the United States by the early 1880s. The silk industry was introduced in 1838, which led to it being named “silk city”; linen thread manufacture began in 1864. By the 1880s Paterson was home to more than one-third of all silk factories in the United States. The city was the scene of many labour disputes, but by the mid-20th century it had become a centre of widely diversified industrial activity. Modern manufactures include textiles, machinery, machine tools, plastics, leather goods, cosmetics, packaging, and chemicals.

The William Paterson College of New Jersey—which was established in 1855 as a normal (teacher-training) school—is located at nearby Wayne. Paterson Museum is known for its collection of New Jersey rocks and Native American relics. Two of the first successful submarines, the Holland I and the Holland II, or Fenian Ram, which were built by John P. Holland (Holland, John Philip) and sunk in the Passaic in 1878 and 1881, respectively, were later recovered; they are now on exhibit at the Paterson Museum. Lambert Castle (1891) in the Garret Mountain Reservation houses the Passaic County Historical Society Museum. In 1970 the Great Falls area was designated a national historic site. William Carlos Williams (Williams, William Carlos) wrote a five-volume poem (1946–58) called Paterson; it focuses on the city and on the Passaic River. Inc. 1851. Pop. (1990) 140,891; (2000) 149,222.