The
Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the
U.S. states of
New York and
New Jersey, emptying into
Newark Bay, a back chamber of
New York Harbor. The
watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside
New York City just west of the lower
Hudson River, which it roughly parallels, separated from it by the
New Jersey Palisades. It also flows through and drains the
New Jersey Meadowlands. The lower river, which is navigable as far as the city of
Hackensack, is heavily industrialized and forms a commercial extension of Newark Bay. Once believed to be among the most polluted water courses in the United States, it had staged a modest revival by the late 2000s.