The Palisades, also called the
New Jersey Palisades or the
Hudson Palisades are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower
Hudson River in northeast
New Jersey and southern
New York in the
United States. The cliffs stretch north from
Jersey City (where their emergence is called
Bergen Hill) approximately 20 mi (32 km) to near
Nyack, New York. They rise nearly vertically from near the edge of the river, ranging in height between 350 ft (107 m) and 550 ft (168 m). The cliffs are among the most dramatic
geologic features in the vicinity of
New York City, forming a
canyon of the Hudson north of
Fort Lee, as well as providing a vista of the New York City skyline.
Palisade is derived from the same root as word
pale, ultimately from the Latin word
palus, meaning stake. The
Lenape called the cliffs "rocks that look like rows of trees" in a phrase that has become
Weehawken, and is the name of the town which sits at the top of the cliffs across from
Manhattan.
Geology
The cliffs are the margin of a
diabase sill, formed approximately 200 million years ago at the close of the
Triassic Period by the intrusion of molten
magma upward into
sandstone. The molten material cooled and solidified before reaching the surface. Subsequent water erosion of the softer sandstone left behind the columnar structure of harder rock that exists today. The cliffs are approximately 300 ft (100 m) thick in sections and originally may have reached to 1,000 ft (300 m).
History
Looking south down the Hudson from the Palisades
In the 19th century, the cliffs were subject to widespread quarrying for
railroad ballast, leading to local efforts to preserve the cliffs. A section of the cliffs north of Fort Lee were subsequently purchased by
John D. Rockefeller, who donated them to the State for permanent preservation. The land is now a part of Palisades Interstate Park, a popular destination for
hiking and other outdoor recreational activities, that also includes
Harriman-
Bear Mountain State Park,
Minnewaska State Park Preserve and several other parks and historic sites in the region.
Beginning in the 1890s, several unsuccessful efforts were made to turn much of the Highlands into a forest preserve. Fearing that they would soon be put out of business, quarry operators responded by working faster: in March, 1898 alone, more than three tons of dynamite was used to bring down Washington Head and Indian Head in Fort Lee, New Jersey producing several million cubic yards of traprock. The following year, work by the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs led to the creation of Palisades Interstate Park Commission, headed by George W. Perkins, which was authorized to acquire land between Fort Lee and
Piermont, New York; its jurisdiction was extended to
Stony Point, New York in 1906.
In 1908 the State of New York announced plans to relocate
Sing Sing Prison to Bear Mountain. Work was begun on the area near Highland Lake (renamed Hessian Lake) and in January 1909, the state purchased the 740-acre (3.0 km
2) Bear Mountain tract. Conservationists, inspired by the work of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission lobbied successfully for the creation of the Highlands of the Hudson Forest Preserve. However, the prison project was continued.
Mary Averell Harriman, whose husband, Union Pacific Railroad president E. H. Harriman died in September of that year, offered the state another 10,000 acres (40 km
2) and one million dollars toward the creation of a state park. George W. Perkins, with whom she had been working, raised another $1.5 million from a dozen wealthy contributors including John D. Rockefeller and J. Pierpont Morgan. New York state appropriated a matching $2.5 million and the state of New Jersey appropriated $500,000 to build the Henry Hudson Drive, (which would be succeeded by the
Palisades Interstate Parkway in 1947). Ultimately the Sing Sing relocation was discontinued.
In June 1983, the Palisades were designated a
National Natural Landmark by the National Parks Service.
See also
