Hackensack, city (1990 pop. 37,049), seat of Bergen co., NE N.J., on the Hackensack River, a residential and industrial suburb of New York City; settled 1647, inc. as a city 1921. Manufactures include furniture, clothing, machinery, and processed foods. Dutch settlers from Manhattan established a trading post there in 1647. During the Revolution the city served as camping grounds for armies of both sides. It grew as a commercial and shipping center in the early 1800s. Although informally called Hackensack (after the Ackenack tribe), it was officially New Barbados until 1921. Of interest are the Church on the Green (First Dutch Reformed; built 1696, rebuilt 1728) and the von Steuben House (1739), a state historic site and the headquarters of the county historical society. A campus of Farleigh-Dickinson Univ. is in the city.

Hackensack, river, c.45 mi (70 km) long, rising in SE N.Y. and flowing S through the Jersey Meadows (or Meadowlands), NE N.J., to Newark Bay. The lower Hackensack is heavily industrialized (and polluted) and economically tied to the ports on Newark Bay and to the industrial development on the nearby Passaic River. It is navigable by oceangoing vessels to Kearny, N.J., and by tugs and barges to Hackensack, N.J. The river's upper course is dammed to form three reservoirs that supply water to Rockland (N.Y.) and Bergen (N.J.) counties.