The Delaware River corridor had been linked by a road along the cliffs overlooking the river since at least 1851. Part of it was constructed in the early 1800s as part of the Newburgh and Chenango Turnpike, chartered in 1805 to create a road from the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike up the Delaware River to Hancock, thence to Deposit, Bainbridge, and Oxford. When the plans for a new highway through the corridor of NY 97 were initially drawn up, it was to bypass what became the Hawk's Nest in favor of a shoreline route. However, the Erie Railroad refused to sell the necessary right-of-way, forcing the state to construct the improved road along the cliffside instead.