Hackensack Plank Road

The Hackensack Plank Road 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 is named. It was originally built as a colonial turnpike road as Hackensack and Hoboken Turnpike The route of which mostly still exists today with some segments called another earlier name, The Bergen Turnpike (the company receiving its charter on November 30, 1802). 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 marshes.