
Belleville is a township in Essex County, New Jersey. It was named "Belleville" (meaning "beautiful city" in French) in 1797, and it was incorporated on 8 April 1839 from portions of Bloomfield. In 1870, Belleville became the first Chinatown on the East Coast of the United States, welcoming in Chinese workers who had worked on the Central Pacific Railroad. In 1956, the band The Four Seasons formed in Belleville. In 2016, Belleville had a population of 36,203 people.