The Bridge that Saved a Nation: Bergen County, New Bridge and the Hackensack Valley

A comprehensive history of Bergen County, New Bridge, and the Hackensack Valley, preserving Revolutionary War landmarks and local heritage.

Historian, Kevin Wright, and his wife, Deborah Powell, moved into the eighteenth-century Steuben House at New Bridge Landing in 1981 as part of his employment in the NJDEP. They, together with other stakeholders, rejuvenated the Revolutionary War landmark and battleground into the historic gem it is today. Wright was writing A History of Bergen County, New Bridge and the Hackensack Valley when he passed away in 2016. Powell edited and illustrated the legacy project for publication and continues to be involved at the museum site. The layered narrative begins with the geography that greatly shapes the history of the valley and continues with the story of the native communities and the colonial settlements that followed. The turmoil of the American Revolution in Bergen is brought to life, including Thomas Paine’s account of the retreat through the area as told in The American Crisis (“These are the times that try men’s souls … ”). The book concludes with twentieth-century efforts to preserve the Jersey-Dutch homes and Historic New Bridge Landing. All royalties from the sale of the book benefit the Bergen County Historical Society.

KEVIN WRIGHT, New Jersey native and Rutgers College graduate, was successively tour director at Waterloo Village, curator at the Steuben House in River Edge, and regional resource-interpretive specialist for thirty years where he provided direction and visioning at NJ historic sites. A popular and compelling lecturer, he also authored numerous books and publications. His service included preservation commissions and president of both the Sussex County Historical Society and the Bergen County Historical Society. Wright was writing this book when he died in 2016; his wife, Deborah Powell, BCHS past president and currently museum collections chair, went on to edit and illustrate the manuscript.