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Hudson River

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Template:Geobox The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois,[1][2][3][citation needed] or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. It begins in the Adirondack Mountains, flows past the Capital District, and then forms the border between New York City and New Jersey at its mouth before emptying into the Upper New York Bay. Its lower half is an estuary, experiencing tidal influence as far north as Troy.[4]

The river was observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 as he became the first European to be credited with entering Upper New York Bay. After first being called the North River, it was eventually renamed for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609. The Hudson River was originally named the Mauritius River, which is claimed to be the name given by Hudson in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. Alternatively, it is said to be the name given by Sixteenth century European adventurers, explorers, and fishermen who knew the river as River Mauritius, 'The River of Mountains'. It was also called the "North River", a name used primarily in the New York City area up until the early 1900s, with limited use continuing into the modern day.[5]

Early European settlement of the area clustered around the river. The area inspired the Hudson River School of painting, a sort of early American pastoral idyll.

Geography

The official source of the Hudson is Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains. However, the waterway from the lake is known as Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River, feeding into the Hudson at Tahawus. The actual Hudson River begins several miles north of Tahawus at Henderson Lake. The Hudson is joined at Troy (north of Albany) by the Mohawk River, its major tributary, just south of which the Federal Dam separates the Upper Hudson River Valley from the Lower Hudson River Valley or simply the Hudson River Valley. South of Troy, the Hudson is tidal and widens and flows south into the Atlantic Ocean between Manhattan Island and the New Jersey Palisades, forming New York Harbor, at New York Bay, an arm of the ocean. The Hudson was originally named the "North River" by the Dutch, who named the Delaware River the "South River." This name persists to this day in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee.[6] It was the English who originated the Hudson name, even though Hudson had found the river while exploring for the Dutch..

View of the Hudson in the 1880s showing Jersey City

The lower Hudson is actually a tidal estuary, with tidal influence extending as far as the Federal Dam at Troy.[4] Strong tides make parts of New York Harbor difficult and dangerous to navigate. During the winter, ice floes drift south or north, depending upon the tides. The Mahican name of the river, Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, means "the river that flows both ways."[citation needed] The Hudson is often mistaken for one of the largest rivers in the United States, but it is an estuary throughout most of its length below Troy and thus only a small fraction of water, about 15,000 cubic feet (425 m³/s) per second, is present. The mean freshwater discharge at the river's mouth in New York is approximately 21,400 cubic feet (606 m³) per second. The Hudson and its tributaries—notably the Mohawk River—drain a large area. Parts of the Hudson river form coves, such as Weehawken Cove in Hoboken and Weehawken.

The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a "drowned" river. The rising sea levels after the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age, have resulted in a marine incursion that drowned the coastal plain and brought salt water well above the mouth of the river. The deeply-eroded old riverbed beyond the current shoreline, Hudson Canyon, is a rich fishing area. The former riverbed is clearly delineated beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, extending to the edge of the continental shelf.

Looking upriver from Battery Park City in Manhattan
Hudson from Midtown Manhattan with Javits Convention Center in foreground. The New Jersey Palisades is visible across the river.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal ended at the Hudson at Kingston, running southwest to the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Notable landmarks on the Hudson include West Point, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Bard College, the Culinary Institute of America, Marist College, the Thayer Hotel at West Point, Bannerman's Castle, Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (formerly part of the New York Central Railroad system), The Tappan Zee, the New Jersey Palisades, Hudson River Islands State Park, Hudson Highlands State Park, New York Military Academy, Fort Tryon Park with The Cloisters, Liberty State Park, and Stevens Institute of Technology. Cities and towns on the New Jersey side include Tenafly, Fort Lee, Edgewater, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City. Cities in New York State include Troy, Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Glens Falls, Yonkers, and New York City.

The natural beauty of the Hudson Valley earned the Hudson River the nickname "America's Rhine", being compared to that of the famous 40 mile (65 km) stretch of Germany's Rhine River valley between the cities of Bingen and Koblenz. A similar 30-mile (48 km) stretch on the east bank of the Hudson has been designated the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The Hudson was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997.

The Narrows

The Narrows, a tidal stream between the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, connects the upper and lower sections of New York Bay. It has long been considered the maritime "gateway" to New York City and historically has been the most important entrance into the harbor.

The Narrows were most likely formed about 6,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Previously, Staten Island and Long Island were connected, preventing the Hudson River from terminating via The Narrows. At that time, the Hudson River emptied into the Atlantic Ocean through a more westerly course through parts of present day northern New Jersey, along the eastern side of the Watchung Mountains to Bound Brook, New Jersey and then on into the Atlantic Ocean via Raritan Bay. A build up of water in the Upper Bay eventually allowed the Hudson River to break through previous land mass that was connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn to form The Narrows as it exists today. This allowed the Hudson River to find a shorter route to the Atlantic Ocean via its present course between New Jersey and New York City (Waldman, 2000).

North River

Main article: North River (Hudson River)

North River is an alternate name for its southernmost portion of the Hudson usually referring to all or part of the waterway located west of Manhattan.[7][8][9][10][11] The colonial name given by the Dutch to the entire river in the early seventeenth century, the term fell out of popular use for most of it some time in the early 1900s,[12] but continues in use locally by mariners and others[13][14][15] as well as on some nautical charts[16] and maps. The term also lives on in the names of a variety of Manhattan facilities along the waterway such as the North River piers, North River Tunnels, and theNorth River Wastewater Treatment Plant, and has strong historical ties with New York City's now-defunct shipping industry.

Haverstraw Bay

Haverstraw Bay, just north of the Tappan Zee (the widest part of the river), is located between Croton Point in the Southeast and the town of Haverstraw in the Northwest. Haverstraw Bay is a popular destination for recreational boaters, and is home to many Yacht clubs and marinas including Croton Yacht Club, Croton Sailing School, Pennybridge Marina, Minisceongo Yacht Club, Stony Point Bay Marina, and Haverstraw Marina, and is traversed by NY Waterway's Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry.

Transportation

Looking downriver from the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises boat. George Washington Bridge can be seen in the background.

The Hudson River is navigable for a great distance above mile 0 (at 40°42.1'N., 74°01.5'W.) off The Battery. The original Erie Canal, opened in 1825 to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie, emptied into the Hudson at the Albany Basin, just three miles (5 km) south of the Federal Dam in Troy (at mile 134). The canal enabled shipping between cities on the Great Lakes and Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. The New York State Canal System, the successor to the Erie Canal, runs into the Hudson River north of Troy and uses the Federal Dam as the Lock 1 and natural waterways whenever possible. The first railroad in New York, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, opened in 1831 between Albany and Schenectady on the Mohawk River, enabling passengers to bypass the slowest part of the Erie Canal.

In northern Troy, the Champlain Canal split from the Erie Canal and continued north along the west side of the Hudson to Thomson, where it crossed to the east side. At Fort Edward the canal left the Hudson, heading northeast to Lake Champlain. A barge canal now splits from the Hudson at that point, taking roughly the same route (also parallel to the Delaware and Hudson Railway's Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad) to Lake Champlain at Whitehall. From Lake Champlain, boats can continue north into Canada to the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The Hudson Valley also proved attractive for railroads, once technology progressed to the point where it was feasible to construct the required bridges over tributaries. The Troy and Greenbush Railroad was chartered in 1845 and opened that same year, running a short distance on the east side between Troy and Greenbush (east of Albany). The Hudson River Railroad was chartered the next year as a continuation of the Troy and Greenbush south to New York City, and was completed in 1851. In 1866 the Hudson River Bridge opened over the river between Greenbush and Albany, enabling through traffic between the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central Railroad west to Buffalo. When the Poughkeepsie Rail Bridge opened in 1879, it became the longest single span bridge in the world. (In 2009, it will be re-opened as a pedestrian walkway over the Hudson, as part of the Hudson River Quadricentennial Celebrations).

The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway ran up the west shore of the Hudson as a competitor to the merged New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Construction was slow, and was finally completed in 1884; the New York Central purchased the line the next year.

The Bear Mountain Bridge from Bear Mountain

The Hudson is crossed at numerous points by bridges, tunnels, and ferries. The width of the Lower Hudson River required major feats of engineering to cross, the results today visible in the Verrazano-Narrows and George Washington Bridges, as well as the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the PATH and Pennsylvania Railroad tubes. The Troy-Waterford Bridge at Waterford was the first bridge over the Hudson, opened in 1809. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered in 1832 and opened in 1835, including the Green Island Bridge, the first bridge over the Hudson south of the Federal Dam. [7]

The Upper Hudson River Valley was also useful for railroads. Sections of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, Troy and Boston Railroad and Albany Northern Railroad ran next to the Hudson between Troy and Mechanicville. North of Mechanicville the shore was bare until Glens Falls, where the short Glens Falls Railroad ran along the east shore. At Glens Falls the Hudson turns west to Corinth before continuing north; at Corinth the Adirondack Railway begins to run along the Hudson's west bank. The original Adirondack Railway opened by 1871, ending at North Creek along the river. In World War II an extension opened to Tahawus, the site of valuable iron and titanium mines. The extension continued along the Hudson River into Hamilton County, and then continued north where the Hudson makes a turn to the west, crossing the Hudson and running along the west shore of the Boreas River. South of Tahawus the route returned to the east shore of the Hudson the rest of the way to its terminus.

NASA image of the lower Hudson

Political boundaries

The Hudson River serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York, and further north between New York counties. The northernmost place with this convention is in southwestern Essex County.

Hamilton Essex
Warren river runs along
municipal boundaries
Saratoga Warren
Saratoga Washington
Saratoga Rensselaer
Albany Rensselaer
Greene Columbia
Ulster Columbia
Ulster Dutchess
Orange Dutchess
Orange Putnam
Rockland Westchester
Bergen (NJ) Westchester
Bergen (NJ) Bronx
Bergen (NJ) New York
Hudson (NJ) New York

Tributaries

View of the Catskills from Rhinecliff
The Hudson near Newcomb, New York, a dozen miles south of its source.

From north to south, moving downriver

Lake Tear of the Clouds, by Seneca Ray Stoddard (late 19th century)

Theodore Roosevelt's historic route

On September 14, 1901, then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was at Lake Tear of the Clouds after returning from a hike to the Mount Marcy summit when he received a message informing him that President William McKinley, who had been shot two weeks earlier but was expected to survive, had taken a turn for the worse.

Roosevelt hiked down 10 miles (16 km) on the southwest side of the mountain to the closest stage station at Long Lake, New York. He then took a 40 mile (64 km) midnight stage coach ride through the twisting Adirondack Roads to the Adirondack Railway station at North Creek, where he discovered that McKinley had died. Roosevelt took the train to Buffalo, New York, where he was officially sworn in as President.

The 40 mile (64 km) route is now designated the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail.

Pollution

General Electric Corporation (GE) has been involved in a long lasting battle over the cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination of the Hudson. GE's Hudson Falls and Fort Edward facilities discharged between 209,000 lb and 1.3 million lb of PCBs into the river from 1947 to 1977. In 1976 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) banned all fishing in the Upper Hudson due to health concerns with PCBs.[17][18] In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a 200 mile (322 km) stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, to be a Superfund site requiring cleanup. GE will soon commence dredging operations[19] at its own expense to clean up the PCBs.[20] Inspired by Earth Day advocates, this action anchored the Riverkeeper program that grew into a global umbrella organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance. The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater is an environmental education organization that promotes awareness of the river and its history.

Other pollution issues affecting the river include: accidental sewage discharges, urban runoff, heavy metals, furans, dioxin, pesticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).[21]

The Hudson River estuary system is part of The National Estuarine Research Reserve System.[22]

A study reported in the August 2008 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry suggests that mercury in common Hudson River fish, including striped bass, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and carp, has declined strongly over the past three decades. The conclusions were extracted from a large database of mercury analyses of fish fillets accumulated by NYSDEC and collected over much of the length of the Hudson from New York City waters to the Adirondack watershed. The research indicates that the trends are in line with the recovery that the Hudson River has experienced over the past few decades, now that activist groups, government officials and industry are beginning to cooperate to help clean up the river system.[23]

NYSDEC has listed various portions of the Hudson was having impaired water quality due to PCBs, cadmium, and other toxic compounds. Hudson River tributaries with impaired water quality (not necessarily the same pollutants as the Hudson main stem) are Mohawk River, Dwaas Kill, Schuyler Creek, Saw Mill River, Esopus Creek, Hoosic River, Quaker Creek, Batten Kill. Many lakes in the Hudson drainage basin are also listed.[24]

US Airways Flight 1549 ditching

Main article: US Airways Flight 1549
US Airways Flight 1549 stayed afloat with passengers on the wings and on the inflatable slides

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 bound for Charlotte, NC made an emergency ditching onto the Hudson River beside lower Manhattan Island with 150 passengers and 5 crew members. All passengers were safely rescued,[25] though some passengers suffered minor injuries from the initial impact with the water.[26][27][28] One person suffered serious injuries in connection with the ditching (Two broken legs).[29] It has been confirmed that multiple bird strikes on both engines were the cause.

Miscellaneous

In 2004, Christopher Swain became the first person to swim the entire length of the Hudson River.[30]

The New Jersey Devils/New York Rangers hockey rivalry is known as the Hudson River rivalry because the Devils are based in Newark and the Rangers are based across the Hudson River in Manhattan.

There have been reported sightings of a sea serpent living in the Hudson River called Kipsy after the city of Poughkeepsie.[31] There is a mural painted by Dick and Margaret Crenson just off Main Street in Poughkeepsie.[32] There have also been reported sightings elsewhere along the Hudson River.[33]

See also

Template:Hvportal

References

  1. ^ Hoffman, Charles Fenno (1839). Wild scenes in the forest and prairie (Chapter II: Ko nea rau neh neh or The Flying Head). Original from Oxford University. pp. Page 31.
  2. ^ Abbatt, William (1906). The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries (INDIAN LEGENDS VIII: THE FLYING HEAD A LEGEND OF SACONDAGA LAKE). Original from Harvard University. p. 282.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Coppée, Henry (edited by) (1900). The Classic and the Beautiful from the Literature of Three Thousand Years (THE FLYING HEAD A LEGEND OF SACONDAGA LAKE). Original from the New York Public Library: Carson & Simpson. p. 220. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ a b [1]
  5. ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer. "F.Y.I", The New York Times, May 15, 1994. Accessed January 17, 2008. "The North River was the colonial name for the entire Hudson River, just as the Delaware was known as the South River. These names went out of use sometime early in the century, said Norman Brouwer, a historian at the South Street Seaport Museum."
  6. ^ Stanne, Stephen P. (1996). The Hudson, An Illustrated Guide to the Living River. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2270-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ The Random House Dictionary (2009)("Part of the Hudson River between NE New Jersey and SE New York.")
  8. ^ The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,'Fourth Edition (2006) ("An estuary of the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City flowing into Upper New York Bay.")
  9. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2005) ("The lower course of the Hudson River, between New York City & NE N.J.")
  10. ^ The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009) ("An estuary of Hudson River between SE New York & NE New Jersey" )
  11. ^ Joint Report With Comprehensive Plan and Recommendations New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission (1926)
  12. ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer."F.Y.I",The New York Times, May 15, 1994. Accessed January 17, 2008. "The North River was the colonial name for the entire Hudson River, just as the Delaware was known as the South River. These names went out of use sometime early in the century, said Norman Brouwer, a historian at the South Street Seaport Museum."
  13. ^ North River Historic Ship Society
  14. ^ The Great North River Tugboat Race and Competition
  15. ^ North River Power Squadron
  16. ^ "SEA PADDLE NYC"
  17. ^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). New York, NY. "Hudson River PCBs." February 5, 2009.
  18. ^ "National Priorities List Fact Sheets: Hudson River PCBs" (PDF). EPA. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  19. ^ "The Hudson River Dredging Project". General Electric. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  20. ^ "Hudson River". General Electric Company.
  21. ^ New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Albany, NY. (2007). "Hudson River Estuary Program: Cleaning the river: Improving water quality" (PDF). p. 24. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  22. ^ Network of 27 Protected Areas "Network of 27 Protected Areas". NOAA. Retrieved 2007-01-27. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  23. ^ Analysis of Hudson River Fish by Research Team Shows Strong Drop in Mercury Newswise, Retrieved on July 22, 2008.
  24. ^ NYSDEC. "Final New York State 2008 Section 303(d) List of Impaired Waters Requiring a TMDL/Other Strategy." May 26, 2008.
  25. ^ New York Times. [2]
  26. ^ CNN.com [3]
  27. ^ BBC News. [4]
  28. ^ MSNBC. [5]
  29. ^ NTSB. [6]
  30. ^ New York State Museum - "Swim for the River"
  31. ^ The Gargoyles Fans Website :: Episode Review: Monsters
  32. ^ The Pulse | Archives | Hudson Valley Magazine
  33. ^ New York Times."The Sea Serpent: He Appears in the Hudson River Below Albany." September 4, 1886.

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