Clifton is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, and the county's largest municipality, with a population of roughly 90,000. It sits near the Passaic River in the heart of North Jersey's highway network, a short commute from Manhattan by rail or car. Crisscrossed by Route 3 and the Garden State Parkway, Clifton functions as both a regional commercial hub and a bedroom suburb of New York City, and it ranks among the state's most populous cities. The city's roots run deep. The area was settled by the Dutch around 1685, part of the Acquackanock Tract purchased from the Delaware Indians in 1679, and it remained within the Township of Passaic until incorporating as the City of Clifton in 1917. That long pre-incorporation history left Clifton with a patchwork of older neighborhood centers rather than a single downtown, a structure that still shapes the city today. Clifton is dense, diverse, and family-oriented. Its many named neighborhoods — Allwood, Delawanna, Botany Village, Athenia, Richfield, and Maple Valley among them — each carry distinct character, from the commuter-friendly Delawanna rail stop to the revitalized historic district of Botany Village. The Clifton Public Schools operate 19 schools serving about 11,000 students, anchoring a community that values its schools and neighborhood parks. The city suits households who want the convenience and density of a close-in New Jersey city, with rail and highway access to Manhattan, abundant shopping and dining, and a housing stock broad enough to span nearly every style. Its commercial corridors along Route 3 make it a destination for the wider region as much as a home base for its residents.