The
Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south through eastern
New York. It rises at
Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of
Mount Marcy in the
Adirondack Mountains, flows past
Albany, and finally forms the border between
New York City and
New Jersey at its mouth before emptying into
Upper New York Bay. Its lower half is an
estuary, experiencing tidal influence as far north as
Troy.
The river is named for
Henry Hudson, an
Englishman sailing for the
Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609.
The Hudson River was observed by Italian explorer
Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 as he became the first European historically known to have entered Upper New York Bay.
Early
European settlement of the area clustered around the Hudson. The area inspired the
Hudson River School of painting, an American pastoral style.
Names
The names of the Hudson River make a complicated story.
It was called
Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the
Great Mohegan, by the
Iroquois,
or as the
Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami,
Muhheakantuck.
In the early days of European exploration the Hudson was known as the Mauritius River. This is said to be the name given it by Henry Hudson in honor of
Prince Maurice of Nassau, but it is also said to be the name given by sixteenth-century European adventurers, explorers, and fishermen who knew it as River Mauritius, 'The River of Mountains'.
The Hudson was named the "
North River" by the Dutch, who called the
Delaware River the "South River."
The name "North River" was used in the
New York City area up until the early 1900s, with limited use continuing into the modern day.
[Steinhauer, Jennifer. , 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."]The term persists in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee.
It was the English who originated the use of the name "Hudson"—even though Hudson had found the river while exploring for the Dutch.
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. The river then flows south, passing between the
Catskill Mountains and the
Taconic Mountains, widening significantly at the
Tappan Zee, finally flowing between
Manhattan Island and the
New Jersey Palisades and into the
Atlantic Ocean at
New York Bay, an arm of the ocean, where it forms
New York Harbor.
The lower Hudson is actually a tidal
estuary, with tidal influence extending as far as the Federal Dam at Troy.
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." 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 freshwater, 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.
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,
Sing Sing Correctional Facility,
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
North River is an alternate name for its southernmost portion of the Hudson usually referring to all or part of the waterway located between
Manhattan and
Hudson County. 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, but continues in use locally by mariners and others as well as on some
nautical charts 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 the
North River Wastewater Treatment Plant, and has strong historical ties with
New York Harbor.
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
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. On October 3, 2009, it re-opened as a pedestrian walkway over the Hudson, as part of the Hudson River Quadricentennial Celebrations and connects over 25 miles of existing pedestrian trails.
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 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.
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.
Tributaries
View of the Catskills from Rhinecliff
From north to south, moving downriver
Note
kill as used above is the Dutch word for
creek. This can obviously cause confusion since
kill is an English word with a totally different meaning. Sometimes the original Dutch colonial name is retained, as in Poestin Kill. Sometimes the Dutch name is redundantly combined with the English word, as in Fishkill Creek (Fish Creek Creek, not a creek named after the killing of fish).
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
In 1966,
Pete Seeger and
Toshi Seeger founded
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. This is both an environmental education organization and an actual boat (a
sloop) that promotes awareness of the river and its history. Clearwater has gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of PCB contamination of the Hudson River caused by industrial manufacturing by
General Electric Corporation (GE) and other companies on the river's edge.
GE's
Hudson Falls and
Fort Edward facilities discharged between and of
polychlorinated biphenyl (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.
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 began
dredging operations to clean up the PCBs on May 15, 2009
left|thumb|Bird's-eye view of the Hudson from the [[Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge|Walkway Over the Hudson]]
In 1980,
Consolidated Edison agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a
pumped-storage hydroelectricity facility on
Storm King Mountain. This action spurred the
Riverkeeper program that grew into a global umbrella organization, the
Waterkeeper Alliance.
Other
pollution issues affecting the river include: accidental
sewage discharges,
urban runoff,
heavy metals,
furans,
dioxin,
pesticides, and
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
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.
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.
The Hudson River estuary system is part of
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
Miscellaneous
In 2004, Christopher Swain became the first person to swim the entire length of the Hudson River.
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. There is a mural painted by Dick and Margaret Crenson just off Main Street in Poughkeepsie. There have also been reported sightings elsewhere along the Hudson River.
See also
