The Hackensack Plank Road, also known as Bergen Turnpike, was a major artery which connected the cities of Hoboken and Hackensack, New Jersey. Like its cousin routes, the Newark Plank Road and Paterson Plank Road, it travelled over Bergen Hill and across the Hackensack Meadows from the Hudson River waterfront to the city for which it was named. It was originally built as a colonial turnpike road as Hackensack and Hoboken Turnpike.[1] The route mostly still exists today, though some segments are now called the Bergen Turnpike. It was during the 19th century that plank roads were developed, often by private companies which charged a toll. As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road that passed through wetlands. The company that built the road received its charter on November 30, 1802.[2] The road followed the route road from Hackensack to Communipaw that was described in 1679 as a "fine broad wagon-road."
In 1854, Nicholas Goelz and Peter Melcher changed the starting point of their stage coaches from West Hoboken, to the new settlement of Union Hill, north of West Hoboken, in order to meet the demand created by that new settlement, and used the Hackensack Plank Road as the route to the Hoboken ferry.[7]
Fairview and The Ridgefields
Crossing the Bergen line at the Fairview Cemetery, the road becomes County Route S124 and is named Broad Avenue. In Ridgefield the route travels west on Hendricks Causeway, which was built in the 1930s, and runs parallel to Edgewater Avenue, the original Bergen Turnpike. A short stretch, Motel Avenue, connects it to Bergen Turnpike which crosses Overpeck Creek into Ridgefield Park, where it ends at the river at the site of ferry landing and bridge, neither of which any longer exists.[8]
Little Ferry and Hackensack
Little Ferry takes its name from a colonial river crossing of the Hackensack River. In 1828, the first bridge over the Hackensack River was built. A wooden structure, it was replaced at the turn of the 20th century by the bridge which still stood before the erection of the present span. It was necessary to pay tolls on both the bridge and Bergen Turnpike until the start of the World War. In 1915, the Board of Chosen Freeholders took over the entire stretch of roadway from Fairview to Main Street, Hackensack. Public Service later became the owners of the bridge and retained the right of way along the turnpike for the operation of its trolleys. In 1934, after the present structure was completed the old historic bridge was torn down despite efforts of the local government and residents of Little Ferry to have it remain. Through the town the route retains the name Bergen Turnpike and its designation of County Route 124.[9] At the city line, it becomes Hudson Street, where it continues north into downtown Hackensack, ending at the Bergen County Court House. Nearby is The Green, site of the colonial First Reformed Dutch Church and heart of the colonial city.[8][10]
