Hackensack Plank Road

Hackensack Plank Road
Route information
Existed	1802–present
Component highways	CR 691 from Hoboken to North Hudson US 1-9 CR 124 from Fairview to Hackensack
Major junctions
South end	Hoboken, NJ
North end	Hackensack, NJ
Location
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
Highway system
Plank roads

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."