List of crossings of the Hackensack River

Bridges at the lower end of the Hackensack. The Lower Hack Lift is just upstream of the clustered Whitpenn, Harsimus Branch Lift, and PATH Lift (foreground), collectively known as the Triple Bridges or Tri Hack.

The Hackensack River courses southward for approximately 50 miles (80 km) through the counties of Rockland in New York and Bergen and Hudson in northeastern New Jersey, creating the border of the latter two for part of its length. Its source, as identified by the USGS (Hydrological Code Unit 02030103901), is in New City. The river empties into Newark Bay between Kearny Point and Droyer's Point (Jersey City).

At the outset of colonial era the river's watershed was home to Lenape groups now known as the Rumachenanck (or Haverstraw), Tappan, and Hackensack, the latter exonym taken from an encampment near the confluence of the tributary Overpeck Creek. European settlement began in the mid 17th century as part of New Netherland when the region was called Achter Kol, meaning rear pass or behind the ridge, to describe the valleys west of the Hudson Palisades which afforded passage to trapping grounds in the northern hinterlands. It was settled by Bergen Dutch who established regular water crossings at Douwe's Ferry and Little Ferry. The first bridge crossing of the Hackensack was at Demarest Landing (now Old Bridge Road), built in 1724, which was replaced by that at New Bridge Landing in 1745. The first railroad crossing was completed by the NJRR in 1834, and was soon followed by many others. By the early 1900s conflicts between rail and maritime traffic led to calls for changes in regulations giving priority to trains.

At one time, Van Buskirk Island, created in 1804, was the head of navigation, but diminished freshwater flow in the Hackensack has been altered by construction of dams, namely the Oradell (1923), the DeForest (1952), and the Tappan (1972). The river is now tidally influenced to the island. The Hackensack has only been channelized to MP 3.5 at the Riverbend in Hudson County. The accumulation of silt has diminished the depth, and thus navigability, of the Lower Hackensack. which at one time was a major waterway for towboats and river barges in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Since 1999, the bridge at MP 16.3 is the most upstream bridge required by the Code of Federal Regulations to open on request, though no requests have made since 1994. The Lower Hackensack remains partially in use for commercial maritime traffic, notably for coal deliveries to the Hudson Generating Station. and sewage sludge for treatment at a facility on the bay. Downstream of the power plant, vehicular moveable bridges (at MP 1.8 and MP 3.1) are required at all times to open on demand. and rail crossings to open on 1-hour notice. As of 2012 there were plans to replace the Wittpenn Bridge, a vehicular bridge at MP 3.1, with a new vertical lift bridge and Portal Bridge, a rail swing bridge at MP 5.0, with a through arch bridge.

Crossings

Mile	Crossing	Image	Carried/Carries	Location	Coordinates
	HD Draw (defunct)	100px	Newark and New York Railroad (CNJ)	Jersey City & Kearny Point
1.7	Newark Plank Road (defunct)		PS
1.8	Lincoln Highway Hackensack River Bridge (Shawn Carson and Robert Nguyen Memorial Bridge)		U.S. Route 1-9 Truck Lincoln Highway East Coast Greenway
	Pulaski Skyway	100px	U.S. Route 1/9
	PATH Lift Bridge		PRR and H&M PATH	Jersey City & Kearny Meadows
	Harsimus Branch Lift	100px	PRR Conrail (North Jersey Shared Assets) NS CSX
3.1	Wittpenn Bridge	100px	original alignment of the Newark Turnpike NJ 7
	Wittpenn Bridge Replacement (under construction)
	New Jersey Railroad (defunct)	100px	PRR
3.4	Lower Hack Lift	100px	DL&W Morris and Essex Lines (NJT)	Riverbend
5.0	Portal Bridge		PRR Northeast Corridor Amtrak and NJT	Secaucus Junction & Kearny Meadows
	Portal Bridge South (planned)
	Portal Bridge North (planned)
	Lewandowski Hackensack River Bridge		New Jersey Turnpike (Eastern Spur) Interstate 95	Snake Hill & Kearny Meadows
	DB Draw (unused)	100px	New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad (Erie) Boonton Line (NJT) NS
6.9	Upper Hack Lift	100px	DL&W Erie Main Line (NJT) Port Jervis Line (MNCR)	Harmon Cove & Kingsland
	Lackawanna Swing Bridge (defunct)		DL&W
7.7	HX Draw aka The Jacknife		Bergen County Line (NJT) Pascack Valley Line (NJT) Meadowlands Rail Line (NJT) Port Jervis Line (MNCR)	Harmon Cove & Meadowlands Sports Complex
	Route 3 East		NJ 3	Secaucus & Meadowlands Sports Complex
	Route 3 West (Medgar Evers Bridge)		NJ 3
	Paterson Plank Road (defunct)		Jersey City, Hoboken and Rutherford Electric Railway Public Service	Secaucus North End & Meadowlands Sports Complex
	New Jersey Turnpike (Western Spur)		Interstate 95	Carlstadt & Ridgefield Park
	Bergen Turnpike (aka Hackensack Plank Road) (defunct)		Public Service 20px CR 124	Ridgefield Park & Little Ferry
14.0	Route 46 Hackensack River Bridge (aka S46 Bridge & Winant Avenue Bridge)	100px	U.S. Route 46
	Interstate 80		Interstate 80	Bogota & Hackensack
16.3	Court Street Bridge (Harold J. Dillard Memorial Bridge)	100px	Court Street - West Fort Lee Road
16.2	New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway		NYS&W
	Midtown Bridge aka Salem Street Bridge (Ryan Memorial Bridge)	100px	20px West Main Street originally carried PS and predecessor streetcars lines
	Cedar Lane Bridge		East Anderson Street - Cedar Lane	Teaneck & Hackensack
	Fairleigh Dickinson University Footbridge
	Route 4		NJ 4
	Swing Bridge at New Bridge Landing Built 1889. to replace earlier 1744 sliding drawbridge.	100px	Main Street (no cars)	New Bridge Landing River Edge, Teaneck, New Milford
	New Bridge Road			New Milford & River Edge
	River Edge Avenue Bridge
	New Milford Avenue Bridge (Merschrod Memorial Bridge)			New Milford
	Oradell Avenue Bridge			Oradell
	Oradell Reservoir Dam			Oradell
	Old Hook Road Bridge		20px CR 502	Emerson, Harrington Park & Closter
	Harriot Avenue Bridge			River Vale & Harrington Park
	Westwood Avenue Bridge			River Vale & Old Tappan New Jersey
	Old Tappan Road
	Lake Tappan Dam		footbridge
	Poplar Road – Washington Avenue
	Veterans Memorial Drive		20px CR 20	New York State Pearl River
	Convent Road		20px CR 26	Pearl River & Blauvelt
	Blauvelt Road
	Palisades Interstate Parkway
	Fifth Avenue
	Western Highway		20px CR 15	West Nyack
	River Subdivision (CSX)		West Shore Railroad (NYC) River Line (Conrail)
	New York State Route 59		NY-59
	New York Thruway			West Nyack & Bardonia
	Old Mill Road			Bardonia
	Lake DeForest Dam
	Congers Road Causeway		20px CR 80 across Lake DeForest	New City & Congers
	Ridge Road		20px CR 23	New City
	New York State Route 304		NY-304
	Haverstraw Road		Old Route 304

Abbreviations

• CNJ=Central Railroad of New Jersey
• CR=County Road, County Route
• CSXT=CSX Transportation
• DL&W=Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
• Erie=Erie Railroad
• H&M=Hudson and Manhattan Railroad
• MNCR=Metro-North Railroad
• MP=mile point
• NYC=New York Central Railroad
• NJDOT=New Jersey Department of Transportation
• NJT=New Jersey Transit
• NYS&W=New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway
• NS=Norfolk Southern Railway
• PATH=Port Authority Trans-Hudson
• PRR=Pennsylvania Railroad
• PS=Public Service Railway
• USGS=United States Geological Survey

See also

• New Milford Plant of the Hackensack Water Company
• Overpeck Creek
• Hackensack RiverWalk
• Geography of New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary
• Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
• List of bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey
• List of crossings of the Lower Passaic River
• List of NJT moveable bridges
• List of fixed crossings of the North River (Hudson River)

External links

• Signals
• North Jersey.com: Bridges are man-made marvels of the Hackensack River

• bridgesnyc: Midtown Bridge (Hackensack and Bogota)