The Nyack Turnpike, the first direct highway across Rockland County and the first important public work there undertaken by private enterprise, opened between Nyack and Suffern after the Nyack Turnpike Road Company was incorporated by act of the New York Legislature on April 17th, 1816. When a new charter was granted on April 20th, 1830, Tunis Smith, John Green, Peter Smith, Lucas Acker, Edward Suffern, Isaac Lydacker, and Jeremiah H. Pierson, identified as the projectors and founders of the Nyack Turnpike, were appointed trustees. Under this charter, renewed in 1853, 1873 and 1883, the turnpike was maintained as a toll road until 1893, became part of the county road system in 1894, and was designated a state highway in 1911. At this place, the modern thoroughfare follows the course of an Indian path of prehistoric days.