The
Hudson Highlands are
mountains on both sides of the
Hudson River in the
U.S. state of
New York, between
Newburgh Bay and
Haverstraw Bay, which form the northern region of the
New York - New Jersey HighlandsThe Hudson River enters this region in the south at
Dunderberg Mountain near
Stony Point, and from the north in the vicinity of
Storm King Mountain and
Breakneck Ridge near
Cornwall, New York. These highlands played a significant role in America's military, cultural and environmental history.
The bedrock of the Highlands is part of the
Reading Prong and more than a billion years old, formed during the
Grenville Orogeny. It represents the very core of the Applachian range, which has been formed by successive mountain-building events (
orogenies). The present mountains have been exposed by the process of
isostasy through the late
Cenozoic Era. The hills were given their rounded form when
glaciers cut through the
Appalachian Mountains here, the Highlands are among the lowest summits in that range (indeed, the
Appalachian Trail reaches its lowest elevation in the Trailside Zoo between
Bear Mountain State Park and
Bear Mountain Bridge). Conversely, the river becomes narrower and deeper through the Highlands, reaching its deepest point of 216 feet (66 m), near
Garrison. Many stretches are challenging to
navigate, earning nicknames like "World's End."
History
Henry Hudson and his crew on the
Half Moon were the first
Europeans to see the Highlands when they explored the river in 1609.
The mountains became strategically important during the
American Revolutionary War, when it was important for the
Continental Army to hold the river valley and prevent the British from cutting
New England off from the rest of the colonies. The
Hudson River Chain was cast from nearby
iron mines and stretched across the river from the
fort at
West Point to prevent British ships from going upriver. The fort is today the site of the
United States Military Academy.
Several decades after independence,
Thomas Cole started an artistic movement by painting America's wild and rugged landscapes— especially, at first, the Highlands— with the stark contrasts and shadows they offered, in a way that suggested raw nature, a world reborn. After the movement had faded, a critic derisively referred to the movement as the
Hudson River School; the name stuck as the label for the new nation's first homegrown artistic movement.
In the early 20th century, in response to damage caused by quarrymen and loggers in the Highlands, local
conservationists began to press for public ownership of the area's woods and mountains. Their efforts paid off in the first of several
state parks that now blanket the chain.
Later that century, an ambitious power-generating plan that would have dug into
Storm King Mountain led to a landmark
lawsuit by
environmental groups that made history when the judge ruled that aesthetic impacts of such large projects could be considered and that a coalition of citizen groups had legal standing. This landmark lawsuit formed the basis for a large body of case law concerning environmentalism.
Mountains of the Hudson Highlands
East (north to south)
West (north to south)
See also
