Ask any number of people in New Jersey 'what are the Meadowlands?' and you'll probably get as many different answers. Some will say it's where the Giants and Jets play football. To others, it's the track — harness racing at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Or it's the home of that former eye-sore now known as American Dream (you know, the mega-mall that's set to open in October).
It's where North Jersey drivers get on the New Jersey Turnpike. And, too often, where traffic to the Lincoln Tunnel starts to crawl.
There are those who believe the Meadowlands are Jimmy Hoffa's final resting place. Or at least they see it as a landfill where illegal dumping went unmitigated for decades.
But there's also a segment of the population who will tell you that the Meadowlands are a natural oasis. An ecological marvel that is regenerating itself after years of abuse. And, more recently, the home of hundreds of species of birds and fish.
And they'd all be right.
"You could be kayaking through a marsh and see birds, then turn a corner and see the New York City skyline," said Jeff Tittel, senior chapter director of the NJ Sierra Club.
"It's an oasis of wetlands and wildlife surrounded by one of the most densely populated areas of the country."
The Meadowlands District is a 30.4-square-mile area that stretches into Bergen and Hudson counties.
It includes a portion of 14 different municipalities, some that are the most densely populated in the state and span from Route 46 in the north to the Pulaski Skyway on the south.
Within that 30.4-square mile span includes 8,000 acres of wetland, 100 acres of open space, 21 parks, eight miles of trails and three boat launches.
The Hackensack River and its tributaries — Mill Creek, Berrys Creek, and Overpeck Creek — are at the center of it all.
But, modern marsh grasses have only been part of the landscape there for a few hundred years, according to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which holds the land lease for MetLife Sports Complex and serves as the regional planning and zoning agency for the Meadowlands District since it absorbed the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission in 2015.
A tangle of waterways and early roads made the Meadowlands area ripe for residential development in the mid-1800s.
Then population growth and technological advances during the Industrial Revolution drew rail service. The development of the combustion engine and the expansion of the automobile and trucking industries in the early 20th century made the district what it is today — more roads and rail activity led to the growth of the warehouse and distribution industries.
The swamps of the Meadowlands in the mid-1900s were seen as a breeding ground for mosquitos and unusable land that should be drained or filled in.
By World War II the area surrounding the meadows was fully developed.
The Bergen County Mosquito Control Commission decided to try to reclaim some of the marshes. They drained about 17,000 acres by building ditches and the land was used for industrial and suburban growth, transportation and landfills.
That meant garbage — a lot of garbage — was dumped here, for decades.
A 1969 state study found that the Meadowlands took in 5,000 tons of garbage per day, six days a week, 300 days of the year from 118 NJ municipalities and New York City, according to the NJSEA.