Bogota is a small borough in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, set along the Hackensack River roughly nine miles from Midtown Manhattan. It is one of the most densely built and closely held of the county's riverside municipalities, covering less than a single square mile yet home to about 8,800 residents. The borough was incorporated on November 14, 1894, formed from portions of Ridgefield Township during the wave of borough incorporations that swept Bergen County in the 1890s. Its name is an unusual one: the founder, Reverend William Irvine, had served as a missionary in Bogotá, Colombia, and named the new borough for that city. In the borough's industrial era, mills such as the Bogota Paper Company and the Riverside Planing Mill lined the riverfront, and local paper production played a role in supplying materials during World War II. Most of those mills closed during the 1960s, and the riverfront gradually transitioned toward residential and recreational use. Today Bogota is a quiet, family-oriented borough of older single-family homes, small apartment buildings, and tree-lined streets. Its schools, parks, and civic organizations anchor a community with deep roots, and the borough's small size fosters a village-like feel unusual in the New York suburbs. The Hackensack River greenway and nearby Overpeck County Park offer outdoor space along the water. Bogota's greatest asset for many residents is its location. Interstate 80 passes through the borough's edge, Route 4 is minutes away in Teaneck, and NJ Transit buses run to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan in well under an hour. That combination of affordability, small-town character, and direct New York access defines the borough's appeal.