Hudson River
Encyclopedia
The Hudson is a 315 miles (506.9 km) river that flows from north to south through eastern New York
. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds
, on the slopes of Mount Marcy
in the Adirondack Mountains
. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York
. The river 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 a tidal estuary
, which occupies the Hudson Fjord. This was created during the most recent North American glaciation
over the latter part of the Wisconsin Stage of the Last Glacial Maximum, 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Tidal waters influence the Hudson's flow as far north as Troy
.
The river is named after Henry Hudson
, an Englishman
sailing for the Dutch East India Company
, who explored it in 1609. It had previously been observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano
sailing for King Francis I of France
in 1524, as he became the first European known to have entered the Upper Bay, but he considered the river to be an estuary. The Dutch called the river the "North River" – with the Delaware River
called the "South River" – and it formed the spine of the Dutch colony of New Netherland
. Settlement of the colony clustered around the Hudson, and its strategic importance as the gateway to the American interior led to years of competition between the English and the Dutch over control of the river and colony.
In the Eighteenth Century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving
, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the Nineteenth Century the area inspired the Hudson River School
of painting, an American pastoral style, as well as the idea of "wilderness" and "conservation."
, and it was known as Muhheakantuck ("river that flows two ways") by the Lenape
tribe who inhabited both banks of the lower portion of the river - all of present day New Jersey and the island of Manhattan. 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.
The term persists in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee
.
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 Waterford (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 Hudson 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 tide
s 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 reflects its partially estuarine nature: 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 fresh water, about 15,000 cubic feet (425 m³) per second, is present. The mean fresh water 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 cove
s, such as Weehawken Cove in Hoboken
and Weehawken
.
The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a "drowned" river. The rising sea level
s 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
,Walkway over the Hudson, 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
, Newburgh Beacon
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.
, 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).
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 chart
s and maps. The term also lives on in the names of a variety of facilities 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.
, 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, Half Moon Bay Marina (Croton), Pennybridge Marina, Minisceongo Yacht Club, Stony Point Bay Marina, and Haverstraw Marina, and is traversed by NY Waterway's
Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry.
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 1889, 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
began at Weehawken Terminal
and 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 bridge
s, tunnel
s, and ferries
. The width of the Lower Hudson River required major feats of engineering to cross, the results today visible in the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
, the George Washington Bridge
, and the Tappan Zee Bridge
, as well as the Lincoln
and Holland
Tunnels and the PATH
and Pennsylvania Railroad
tubes. The George Washington Bridge (signed as I-95/US 1-9/US 46), connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey
to the Washington Heights
neighborhood of Upper Manhattan
in New York City, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge. 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
mine
s. 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.
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
.
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
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, where he was officially sworn in as President.
The 40 mile (64 km) route is now designated the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail
.
s were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, for example in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors.General Electric
manufacturing facilities at Hudson Falls
and Fort Edward
discharged between 209000–1300000 lb (94.8–589.7 t) of polychlorinated biphenyl
(PCBs) into the river from 1947 to 1977. The PCBs caused extensive contamination of fish in the river and apparently triggered a rapid evolutionary change in the Atlantic tomcod, which after about 50 years of exposure evolved a two amino acid change in its AHR2 receptor gene, causing the receptor to bind more weakly with PCBs than normal. The mutation does not prevent the tomcods from accumulating PCBs in their bodies and passing them on to striped bass
and whatever else eats them. This system of passing contamination on to larger organisms is also known as biomagnification
. The toxic chemicals also accumulated in sediment
s that settled to the river bottom. The highest concentration of PCBs comes from the Thompson Island Pool.
In 1966, Pete Seeger
and Toshi Seeger founded Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
, 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 caused by GE and other companies.
There are many economic effects caused by the PCB Contamination. The water cannot be used for agriculture use, money is lost from the fishing industry because of the ban on recreational fishing, medical expenses for people who have side-effects from the water, and the cost of clean-up efforts.
In 1976 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
banned all fishing in the Upper Hudson
due to health concerns with PCBs. PCBs are thought to be responsible for health issues that include Neurological Disorders, lower IQ and poor short-term memory (active memory), hormonal disruption, suppressed immune system, cancer, skin Irritations, Parkinson’s Disease, ADHD, heart disease, and diabetes. PCB contamination in humans come from drinking the contaminated water, absorption through the skin, eating contaminated aquatic life, and inhaling volatilized PCBs. PCB contamination is especially dangerous for pregnant and nursing women. The contamination can reach the fetus and potentially cause birth defects. Contamination through breast milk can also have harmful effects on the child indirectly.
In 1977, PCBS were banned in the United States. 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.This superfund site is considered to be one of the largest in the nation. In 2001, after a ten year study of PCB contamination in the Hudson River, the EPA proposed a plan to clean up the river by dredging more than 100,000 pounds of PCBs. The worst PCB hotspots are targeted for remediation by removing and disposing of more than 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The dredging project is the most aggressive environmental effort ever proposed to clean up a river, and will cost GE about $460,000,000. GE began sediment dredging operations to clean up the PCBs on May 15, 2009. This stage (Phase One) of the cleanup was completed in October 2009, and was responsible for the removal of approximately 300,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, which was more than the targeted amount. Over 620 barges filled with sediment were transported to the processing facility on the Champlain Canal, and over 80 rail cars transported the dredged sediment to a waste facility in Andrews, Texas. The true scope of Phase One was about 100,000 cubic yards more than planned, and Phase Two will be expanded as a consequence. Before Phase two of the cleanup, GE was given the opportunity to opt out of the clean up efforts, but they chose to complete the project. Phase two of the cleanup project, led by GE and monitored by the EPA, began in June 2011. This phase targets approximately 2.4 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a forty mile section of the Upper Hudson River. Phase Two of the clean up will take approximately 5 to 7 years to complete.
issues affecting the river include: accidental sewage discharges
, urban runoff
, heavy metals
, furans, dioxin, pesticide
s, 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 as having impaired water quality
due to PCB
s, 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, and Batten Kill
. Many lakes in the Hudson drainage basin
are also listed.
(Con Ed) agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a pumped-storage hydroelectricity
facility on Storm King Mountain. The actions of local citizen organizations that led to the Con Ed decision spurred the creation of Riverkeeper
, a non-profit environmental organization that grew into a global umbrella organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance
.
, a nuclear power plant
in Buchanan
, is violating the Clean Water Act
due to its large withdrawals of water from the Hudson, which kills millions of fish and other aquatic organisms each year. The state is demanding that Entergy
, the plant operator, construct cooling tower
s to mitigate the environmental impacts.
The Hudson River estuary system is part of The National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds
Lake Tear of the Clouds
Lake Tear of the Clouds is a small tarn located in the town of Keene, in Essex County, New York, on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy; it is both the highest lake in the state and the highest source of the Hudson River via Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River...
, on the slopes of Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy is the highest point in New York State, with an elevation of . It is a popular destination for hikers due to its stature and great views, and the peak can get very crowded in the summer months...
in the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York
Newcomb, New York
Newcomb is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 481 at the 2000 census.The Town of Newcomb is at the west border of the county. It is southwest of Plattsburgh, southwest of Burlington, VT, northeast of Utica, NY, north-northeast of Albany, NY, and ...
. The river flows past Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, and finally forms the border between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
at its mouth before emptying into Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay, or Upper Bay, is the traditional heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and often called New York Harbor. It is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne.It...
. Its lower half is a tidal estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
, which occupies the Hudson Fjord. This was created during the most recent North American glaciation
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
over the latter part of the Wisconsin Stage of the Last Glacial Maximum, 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Tidal waters influence the Hudson's flow as far north as Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
.
The river is named after Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
, an Englishman
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
sailing for the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
, who explored it in 1609. It had previously been observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse expeditions to North America around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including New...
sailing for King Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
in 1524, as he became the first European known to have entered the Upper Bay, but he considered the river to be an estuary. The Dutch called the river the "North River" – with the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
called the "South River" – and it formed the spine of the Dutch colony of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
. Settlement of the colony clustered around the Hudson, and its strategic importance as the gateway to the American interior led to years of competition between the English and the Dutch over control of the river and colony.
In the Eighteenth Century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the Nineteenth Century the area inspired the Hudson River School
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
of painting, an American pastoral style, as well as the idea of "wilderness" and "conservation."
Names
The river was called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan, by the IroquoisIroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, and it was known as Muhheakantuck ("river that flows two ways") by the Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
tribe who inhabited both banks of the lower portion of the river - all of present day New Jersey and the island of Manhattan. The Hudson was named the "North River" by the Dutch, who called the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
the "South River."
The name "North River" was used in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
area up until the early 1900s, with limited use continuing into the modern day.
The term persists in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee
Tappan Zee
The Tappan Zee is a natural widening of the Hudson River, about 3 mi across at its widest, in southeastern New York in the United States. It stretches about 10 mi along the boundary between Rockland and Westchester counties, downstream from Croton Point to Irvington...
.
Geography
The official sourceSource (river or stream)
The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:There is no universally agreed upon definition for determining a stream's 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
Tahawus, New York
Tahawus was a village in the Town of Newcomb, Essex County, New York, USA. It is now a ghost town situated in Adirondack Park. Tahawus is located in Essex County within the unpopulated northern area designated to the town of Newcomb. Tahawus was the site of major mining and iron smelting...
. The actual Hudson River begins several miles north of Tahawus at Henderson Lake
Henderson Lake
Henderson Lake is a lake located on Vancouver Island that drains south into head of Uchucklesit Inlet on the north side of lower Alberni Inlet....
. The Hudson is joined at Waterford (north of Albany) by the Mohawk River
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
, its major tributary, just south of which the Federal Dam
Federal Dam (Troy)
The Federal Dam is a manmade dam built across the Hudson River in the US state of New York from Troy on the east bank to Green Island on the west bank. The major function of the dam is to improve navigability. It is located at mile 153 of the Hudson River, measuring from the beginning of the Hudson...
separates the Upper Hudson River Valley
Upper Hudson River Valley
The northern portion of the Hudson River valley in Upstate New York, generally that region extending from the first town below the headwaters of the Hudson River at North River to the last substantive waterfall preventing the passage of vessels at Fort Edward...
from the Lower Hudson River Valley or simply the Hudson River Valley. The Hudson river then flows south, passing between the Catskill Mountains
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
and the Taconic Mountains
Taconic Mountains
The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
, widening significantly at the Tappan Zee
Tappan Zee
The Tappan Zee is a natural widening of the Hudson River, about 3 mi across at its widest, in southeastern New York in the United States. It stretches about 10 mi along the boundary between Rockland and Westchester counties, downstream from Croton Point to Irvington...
, finally flowing between Manhattan Island
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and the New Jersey Palisades
New Jersey Palisades
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 northeastern New Jersey and southern New York in the United States. The cliffs stretch north from Jersey City approximately 20 mi to near...
and into the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
at New York Bay
New York Bay
New York Bay is the collective term for the marine areas surrounding the entrance of the Hudson River into the Atlantic Ocean. Its two largest components are Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay, which are connected by The Narrows...
, an arm of the ocean, where it forms New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
.
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
s 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 reflects its partially estuarine nature: 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 fresh water, about 15,000 cubic feet (425 m³) per second, is present. The mean fresh water 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 cove
Cove
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often inside a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves...
s, such as Weehawken Cove in Hoboken
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
and Weehawken
Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...
.
The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a "drowned" river. The rising sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
s after the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
, the most recent ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, have resulted in a marine incursion
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...
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
Hudson Canyon
__notoc__The Hudson Canyon is a submarine canyon that begins from the shallow outlet of the estuary at the mouth of the Hudson River. It extends out over seaward across the continental shelf finally connecting to the deep ocean basin at a depth of 3 to 4 km below sea level...
, 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
Continental shelf
The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain. Much of the shelf was exposed during glacial periods, but is now submerged under relatively shallow seas and gulfs, and was similarly submerged during other interglacial periods. The continental margin,...
.
The Delaware and Hudson Canal
Delaware and Hudson Canal
The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which later developed the Delaware and Hudson Railway...
ended at the Hudson at Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
, running southwest to the coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
fields of northeastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Notable landmarks on the Hudson include West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site preserves the Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York, United States of America. Springwood was the birthplace, lifelong home, and burial place of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
, Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, the Culinary Institute of America
Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America is a non-profit culinary college located in Hyde Park USA, founded in 1946. The CIA also has branch campuses in St. Helena, California, and San Antonio, Texas, as well as a campus in Singapore. It is a not-for-profit academic institution of higher learning...
, Marist College
Marist College
Marist College is a private liberal arts college on the east bank of the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York. The site was established in 1905 by Marist Brothers, and the college was chartered in 1929...
, the Thayer Hotel
Thayer Hotel
The Thayer Hotel is a 149-room "Historic Hotel of America" property located 50 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River at 674 Thayer Road in West Point, New York on the campus of the United States Military Academy...
at West Point, Bannerman's Castle
Pollepel Island
Pollepel Island is an island in the Hudson River.Also known as Pollopel Island, Pollopel's Island, and Bannerman Island, it is the site of Bannerman's Castle...
, Metro-North Railroad
Metro-North Railroad
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
's Hudson Line
Hudson Line (Metro-North)
Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line is a commuter rail line running north from New York City along the east shore of the Hudson River. Metro-North service ends at Poughkeepsie, with Amtrak's Empire Corridor trains continuing north to and beyond Albany...
(formerly part of the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
system), the Tappan Zee, the New Jersey Palisades, Hudson River Islands State Park
Hudson River Islands State Park
Hudson River Islands State Park or Hudson Islands Park is located on the Hudson River in New York. This park is in the Town of Coxsackie in Greene County, New York. It is open from Memorial Day to Columbus Day....
, Hudson Highlands State Park
Hudson Highlands State Park
Hudson Highlands State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the U.S. state of New York, located on the east side of the Hudson River. The park runs from Peekskill in Westchester County, through Putnam County, to Beacon in Dutchess County, in the eastern section of the Hudson Highlands.The park's...
,Walkway over the Hudson, Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
Correctional Facility, New York Military Academy
New York Military Academy
New York Military Academy, or NYMA, is an American private boarding school located in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. It was founded in 1889 by Charles Jefferson Wright, a Civil War veteran and former school teacher from New Hampshire who believed that a military structure provided the best...
, Fort Tryon Park
Fort Tryon Park
Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Washington Heights section of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA. It is situated on a 67 acre ridge in Upper Manhattan, with a commanding view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River...
with The Cloisters
The Cloisters
The Cloisters is a museum located in Fort Tryon Park, New York City. The building, which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was reconstructed in the 1930s from the architectural elements of several European medieval abbeys...
, Liberty State Park
Liberty State Park
Liberty State Park is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey, opposite the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The park opened in 1976 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations and is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.-Geography and...
, and Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
. Cities and towns on the New Jersey side include Tenafly
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City....
, Fort Lee
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
, Edgewater, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. Cities in New York State include Troy, Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
, Glens Falls
Glens Falls, New York
Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States. Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census...
, Yonkers
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, Newburgh Beacon
Beacon, New York
Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2010 census placed the city total population at 15,541. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport,...
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
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
and Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
. A similar 30-mile (48 km) stretch on the east bank of the Hudson has been designated the Hudson River Historic District
Hudson River Historic District
The Hudson River Historic District, also known as Hudson River Heritage Historic District, is the largest such district on the mainland of the contiguous United States...
, a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. The Hudson was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers
American Heritage Rivers
American Heritage Rivers are designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to receive special attention to further three objectives: natural resource and environmental protection, economic revitalization, and historic and cultural preservation.The American Heritage Rivers...
in 1997.
The Narrows
The NarrowsThe Narrows
The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson River empties into the Atlantic Ocean...
, a tidal stream between the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
boroughs
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, 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
Watchung Mountains
The Watchung Mountains are a group of three long low ridges of volcanic origin, between 400 ft. and 500 ft. high, lying parallel to each other in northern New Jersey in the United States...
to Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. At the United States 2010 Census, the population was 10,402.Bound Brook was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1869, within portions of Bridgewater Township...
and then on into the Atlantic Ocean via Raritan Bay
Raritan Bay
Raritan Bay is a bay located at the southern portion of Lower New York Bay between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey and is part of the New York Bight. The bay is bounded on the northwest by New York's Staten Island, on the west by Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on the south by the Raritan...
. 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 the southernmost portion of the Hudson, usually referring to all or part of the waterway located between ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
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 chart
Nautical chart
A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids...
s and maps. The term also lives on in the names of a variety of facilities 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 BayHaverstraw Bay
Haverstraw Bay, located in New York, is the widest portion of the Hudson River. The width of Haverstraw Bay is approximately 3.4 miles . The length approximately 5 miles from river kilometer 58 at Croton Point to river kilometer 66 at Stony Point...
, 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, Half Moon Bay Marina (Croton), Pennybridge Marina, Minisceongo Yacht Club, Stony Point Bay Marina, and Haverstraw Marina, and is traversed by NY Waterway's
NY Waterway
NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley...
Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry.
Transportation
Navigability
A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass. Preferably there are few obstructions such as rocks or trees to avoid. Bridges must have sufficient clearance. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable. Waters may be...
for a great distance above mile 0 (at 40°42.1'N., 74°01.5'W.) off The Battery. The original Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
, 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
Federal Dam (Troy)
The Federal Dam is a manmade dam built across the Hudson River in the US state of New York from Troy on the east bank to Green Island on the west bank. The major function of the dam is to improve navigability. It is located at mile 153 of the Hudson River, measuring from the beginning of the Hudson...
in Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
(at mile 134). The canal enabled shipping between cities on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
via the Atlantic Ocean. The New York State Canal System
New York State Canal System
The New York State Canal System is a successor to the Erie Canal and other canals within New York...
, 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
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
in New York, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad
Albany and Schenectady Railroad
The Albany & Schenectady Railroad, originally the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, was the first railroad built in the State of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States....
, opened in 1831 between Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
and Schenectady
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
on the Mohawk River, enabling passengers to bypass the slowest part of the Erie Canal.
In northern Troy, the Champlain Canal
Champlain Canal
The Champlain Canal is a canal that connects the south end of Lake Champlain to the Hudson River in New York. It was simultaneously constructed with the Erie Canal and is now part of the New York State Canal System and the Lakes to Locks Passage....
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
Fort Edward (town), New York
Fort Edward is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 5,892 at the 2000 census....
the canal left the Hudson, heading northeast to Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
. A barge canal
Barge Canal
Barge Canal may refer to one of these projects:*Canaveral Barge Canal, in Brevard County, Florida*Cross Florida Barge Canal, a never-completed project to connect the St. Johns River to the Gulf of Mexico...
now splits from the Hudson at that point, taking roughly the same route (also parallel to the Delaware and Hudson Railway
Delaware and Hudson Railway
The Delaware and Hudson Railway is a railroad that operates in the northeastern United States. Since 1991 it has been a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, although CPR has assumed all operations and the D&H does not maintain any locomotives or rolling stock.It was formerly an important...
's Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad) to Lake Champlain at Whitehall
Whitehall (village), New York
Whitehall is a village located in the town of Whitehall in Washington County, New York, USA. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. From Lake Champlain, boats can continue north into Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to the Saint Lawrence Seaway
Saint Lawrence Seaway
The Saint Lawrence Seaway , , is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal...
.
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
Greenbush, New York
Greenbush, New York may refer to a few places in the U.S. state of New York:In Rensselaer County:* East Greenbush, New York, a town** East Greenbush , New York, a hamlet within the town* North Greenbush, New York, a townIn Rockland County:...
(east of Albany). The Hudson River Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
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
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. When the Poughkeepsie Rail Bridge
Poughkeepsie Bridge
The Poughkeepsie Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York on the east bank and Highland, New York on the west bank...
opened in 1889, 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
West Shore Railroad
The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad from Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, north along the west shore of the river to Albany, New York and then west to Buffalo...
began at Weehawken Terminal
Weehawken Terminal
Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1959. The complex contained five ferry slips, sixteen passenger train tracks, car float...
and 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.
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s, tunnel
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
s, and ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
. The width of the Lower Hudson River required major feats of engineering to cross, the results today visible in the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger lower bay....
, the George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 cross the river via the bridge. U.S...
, and the Tappan Zee Bridge
Tappan Zee Bridge
The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, usually referred to as Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge in New York over the Hudson River at one of its widest points; the Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called "Tappan"; and zee being the Dutch word for "sea"....
, as well as the Lincoln
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
and Holland
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey at Interstate 78 on the mainland. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, or local hero or...
Tunnels and the PATH
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
and Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad
The New York Tunnel Extension , was a major project of the Pennsylvania Railroad at the beginning of the 20th century, to improve railroad access throughout the greater New York City area...
tubes. The George Washington Bridge (signed as I-95/US 1-9/US 46), connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
to the Washington Heights
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
neighborhood of Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan denotes the more northerly region of the New York City Borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary may be defined anywhere between 59th Street and 155th Street. Between these two extremes lies the most common definitions of Upper Manhattan as Manhattan above 96th Street...
in New York City, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge. The Troy-Waterford Bridge
Troy-Waterford Bridge
The Troy–Waterford Bridge carries US 4 across the Hudson River in New York connecting Waterford with Troy. The bridge is two lanes wide, with sidewalks on both sides. The bridge serves as a replacement for the 1804-built Union Bridge, which was burned in a fire on July 10, 1909.-References:...
at Waterford
Waterford (town), New York
Waterford is a town in Saratoga County, New York, USA. The population was 8,515 at the 2000 census. The name of the town is derived from its principal village, also called Waterford. The town and village are in the southeast corner of Saratoga County, and north-northwest of Troy, New York.-...
was the first bridge over the Hudson, opened in 1809. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered on April 14, 1832. It completed between Troy and Ballston Spa on March 19, 1836. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company leased the line on May 1, 1871, and it was consolidated into the Delaware and Hudson Railroad effective January 30, 1945....
was chartered in 1832 and opened in 1835, including the Green Island Bridge
Green Island Bridge
The Green Island Bridge crosses the Hudson River in New York, connecting Green Island with Troy. It opened September 12, 1981.-History:The original Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad bridge was a wood-truss covered bridge built in 1832. On May 10, 1862 it caught fire from the sparks of a passing...
, 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
Troy and Boston Railroad
The Troy and Boston Railroad was chartered April 4, 1848 and organized November 22, 1849. It completed a railroad from Troy, New York to the Vermont state line in 1852. This was also the main track of the Troy and Rutland Railroad, Rutland and Washington Railroad, and the Rutland Railway...
and Albany Northern Railroad ran next to the Hudson between Troy and Mechanicville
Mechanicville, New York
Mechanicville is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population is 5,196 as of the 2010 census. It is the smallest city by area in the state. The name is derived from the occupations of early residents....
. North of Mechanicville the shore was bare until Glens Falls
Glens Falls, New York
Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States. Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census...
, where the short Glens Falls Railroad ran along the east shore. At Glens Falls the Hudson turns west to Corinth
Corinth (town), New York
Corinth is a town in Saratoga County, New York, USA. The population was 5,985 at the 2000 census. The town contains a village also named Corinth. The town is on the northeast border of the county, north of Saratoga Springs. It regards itself as the "snowshoe capital of the world." The town is named...
before continuing north; at Corinth the Adirondack Railway
Adirondack Scenic Railroad
The Adirondack Scenic Railroad is a tourist railway located in Adirondack Park that runs during the summer months from Utica to Thendara, and from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid...
begins to run along the Hudson's west bank. The original Adirondack Railway opened by 1871, ending at North Creek
North Creek, New York
North Creek is a hamlet in the Adirondack Park, in the town of Johnsburg, in Warren County, New York, United States. It is an area known for skiing , hiking and other outdoor recreational activities. It is located at ....
along the river. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
an extension opened to Tahawus, the site of valuable iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
s. The extension continued along the Hudson River into Hamilton County
Hamilton County, New York
Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is named after Alexander Hamilton, the only member of the New York State delegation who signed the United States Constitution in 1787 and later the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. Its county seat is Lake Pleasant...
, 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.
Political boundaries
The Hudson River serves as a political boundaryBorder
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
between the states of New Jersey and New York, and further north between New York counties
County (United States)
In the United States, a county is a geographic subdivision of a state , usually assigned some governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana is divided into parishes and Alaska into boroughs. Parishes and boroughs are called "county-equivalents" by the U.S...
. The northernmost place with this convention is in southwestern Essex County
Essex County, New York
Essex County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,370. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Its county seat is Elizabethtown...
.
| Hamilton Hamilton County, New York Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is named after Alexander Hamilton, the only member of the New York State delegation who signed the United States Constitution in 1787 and later the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. Its county seat is Lake Pleasant... |
Essex Essex County, New York Essex County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,370. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Its county seat is Elizabethtown... |
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| Warren Warren County, New York Warren County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Glens Falls, New York, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,707. It is named in honor of General Joseph Warren, an American Revolutionary War hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill... |
river runs along municipal boundaries |
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| Saratoga Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa... |
Warren Warren County, New York Warren County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Glens Falls, New York, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,707. It is named in honor of General Joseph Warren, an American Revolutionary War hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill... |
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| Saratoga Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa... |
Washington Washington County, New York Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Glens Falls, New York, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,216. It was named for the Revolutionary War general George Washington... |
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| Saratoga Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa... |
Rensselaer Rensselaer County, New York Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy... |
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| Albany Albany County, New York Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204... |
Rensselaer Rensselaer County, New York Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy... |
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| Greene Greene County, New York Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill... |
Columbia Columbia County, New York Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,096. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal... |
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| Ulster Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at... |
Columbia Columbia County, New York Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,096. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal... |
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| Ulster Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at... |
Dutchess Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488... |
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| Orange Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley... |
Dutchess Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488... |
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| Orange Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley... |
Putnam Putnam County, New York Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the lower Hudson River Valley. Putnam county formed in 1812, when it detached from Dutchess County. , the population was 99,710. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. The county seat is the hamlet of Carmel... |
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| Rockland Rockland County, New York Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The... |
Westchester Westchester County, New York Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities... |
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| Bergen Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack... (NJ) |
Westchester Westchester County, New York Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities... |
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| Bergen Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack... (NJ) |
Bronx | |
| Bergen Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack... (NJ) |
New York | |
| Hudson Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities... (NJ) |
New York |
Tributaries
- See Rivers of the Hudson River Basin for an alphabetical listing including tributaries of tributaries.
- Opalescent Brook
- Cedar RiverCedar River (New York)The Cedar River is a river in the central Adirondacks, in Hamilton County, New York. It rises at the outlet of the Cedar Lakes in the town of Arietta and flows northeast into the town of Lake Pleasant, where it passes through the Cedar River Flow...
- Indian River
- Boreas River
- Schroon RiverSchroon RiverThe Schroon River is a tributary of the Hudson River in the southern Adirondack Mountains of New York, beginning at the confluence of Crowfoot Brook and New Pond Brook near Underwood, and terminating at the Hudson in Warrensburg. Its watershed is entirely within the Adirondack Park...
- Sacandaga RiverSacandaga RiverThe Sacandaga River is a river in the northern part of New York in the United States. Its name comes from the Native American Sa-chen-da'-ga, meaning "overflowed lands"....
- Mill CreekMill Creek (New York)Mill Creek, also previously known as Tierken Kill, is a tributary to the Hudson River. Poetanock was the Native American name for the stream.From its source just west of Snyders Lake in East Greenbush the stream travels southwest, then north and west to the Hudson River.The stream has two...
- Batten KillBatten KillThe Batten Kill, or Battenkill, or the Battenkill River, is a river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary of the Hudson River....
- Hoosic RiverHoosic RiverThe Hoosic River, also known as the Hoosac, the Hoosick and the Hoosuck , is a tributary of the Hudson River in the northeastern United States. The different spellings are the result of varying transliterations of the river's original Algonquian name...
- Mohawk RiverMohawk RiverThe Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
- Poesten KillPoesten KillThe Poesten Kill is a creek in upstate New York located entirely in Rensselaer County, which flows westerly from its source at Dyken Pond in the town of Berlin to its mouth at the Hudson River in the city of Troy...
- Patroon CreekPatroon CreekPatroon Creek is a stream in Albany County, New York, United States and is a tributary of the Hudson River which flows south to New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. The creek's source is Rensselaer Lake in the western section of the city of Albany and flows along the northern border of said city...
- Normans KillNormans KillThe Normans Kill is a creek in New York's Capital District located in Schenectady and Albany counties, which flows southeasterly from its source in the town of Duanesburg near Delanson to its mouth at the Hudson River in the town of Bethlehem. The stream creates the Watervliet Reservoir in the...
- Moordener KillMoordener KillThe Moordener Kill is a tributary to the Hudson River that flows through southwestern Rensselaer County, New York, in the United States. Moordener Kill translates to "Murderer Creek", because the word moordener is the Dutch word for "murderer"...
- Coeymans CreekCoeymans CreekCoeymans Creek is a creek that runs though Albany County, New York. It is a tributary of the Hudson River. The creek originates as the continuation of Onesquethaw Creek, which starts near Clarksville, New York, in the Helderberg Mountains.-History:...
- Catskill CreekCatskill CreekCatskill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east northern Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Franklinton Vlaie in Schoharie County it flows southeast through parts of Albany County and Greene County to its mouth at the village of Catskill on...
whose name was applied to the Catskill Mountains - Roeliff-Jansen KillRoeliff-Jansen KillThe Roeliff Jansen Kill is a major tributary to the Hudson River.Its source is near Chatham, New York, and its mouth is at the Hudson River at Linlithgo in the town of Livingston...
- Esopus CreekEsopus CreekEsopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries...
- Rondout CreekRondout CreekRondout Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, USA. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk...
- Crum Elbow Creek
- Wappinger CreekWappinger CreekWappinger Creek is a creek which runs from Thompson Pond to the Hudson River at New Hamburg in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is the longest creek in Dutchess County, with the largest watershed in the county.- Overview :...
- CasperkillCasperkillThe Casperkill is a creek in both the town and city of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. It flows from Peach Hill Park to the Hudson River...
- Quassaick CreekQuassaick CreekQuassaick Creek is an tributary of the Hudson River in Orange and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York. It rises in the glacial ridges west of the river, near the boundary between the towns of Plattekill and Marlborough...
- Fishkill CreekFishkill CreekFishkill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At it is the second longest stream in the county, after Wappinger Creek. It rises in the town of Union Vale and flows generally southwest to a small estuary on the Hudson just south of Beacon. Part of...
- Moodna CreekMoodna CreekMoodna Creek is a small tributary of the Hudson River that drains eastern Orange County, New York. At 15.5 miles in length from its source at the confluence of Cromline Creek and Otter Kill west of Washingtonville, it is the longest stream located entirely within the county.Despite its small...
- Croton RiverCroton RiverThe Croton River is a river in southern New York that begins where the East and West Branches of the Croton River meet a little way downstream from the Croton Falls Reservoir...
- Sing Sing Kill
- Pocantico River which flows through Rockefeller State Park PreserveRockefeller State Park Preserve__notoc__Rockefeller State Park Preserve is a state park in Sleepy Hollow, New York, in the eastern foothills of the Hudson River in Westchester County. Common activities in the park include horse-riding, running, jogging, birdwatching, walking and sport fishing. The park has a rich history and was...
- Sparkill CreekSparkill CreekSparkill Creek, located in Rockland County, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey, is eight miles long and begins from rain on Clausland Mountain in Orangetown, New York...
- Wicker's Creek
- Saw Mill RiverSaw Mill RiverThe Saw Mill River is a 20 mile long tributary of the Hudson River in the United States, flowing from a marsh in Chappaqua to Yonkers, New York, where it empties into the Hudson. Its starting point in Chappaqua is presumed to be a spring. In the 17th century, the Saw Mill River was known as...
Note kill
Kill (body of water)
As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." The modern Dutch term is kil....
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 PresidentVice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
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
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
, 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
Long Lake, New York
Long Lake is a town in Hamilton County, New York in the United States. The population was 852 at the 2000 census. The town is named for long Long Lake beside which it sits. The town is entirely within the Adirondack Park and is the most northerly town in the county. It is a summer tourism...
. 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, where he was officially sworn in as President.
The 40 mile (64 km) route is now designated the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail
Roosevelt-Marcy Trail
The Roosevelt-Marcy Trail is named for the historic route Vice President Theodore Roosevelt traveled on a dangerous midnight stagecoach ride from Tahawus to the North Creek train station to take the Presidential oath....
.
Pollution and other environmental impacts
PCB contamination
PCBPCB
PCB may refer to:Science and technology:* Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics* PCB , software to design printed circuit boards* PCBoard, bulletin board software for MS-DOS* Polychlorinated biphenyls, organic compounds...
s were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, for example in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors.General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
manufacturing facilities at Hudson Falls
Hudson Falls, New York
Hudson Falls is a village located in Washington County, New York, USA. The village is in the southwest part of the town of Kingsbury, on US Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 6,927...
and Fort Edward
Fort Edward (village), New York
Fort Edward is a village in Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The village population was 3,141 at the 2000 census...
discharged between 209000–1300000 lb (94.8–589.7 t) of polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
(PCBs) into the river from 1947 to 1977. The PCBs caused extensive contamination of fish in the river and apparently triggered a rapid evolutionary change in the Atlantic tomcod, which after about 50 years of exposure evolved a two amino acid change in its AHR2 receptor gene, causing the receptor to bind more weakly with PCBs than normal. The mutation does not prevent the tomcods from accumulating PCBs in their bodies and passing them on to striped bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
and whatever else eats them. This system of passing contamination on to larger organisms is also known as biomagnification
Biomagnification
Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is the increase in concentration of a substance that occurs in a food chain as a consequence of:* Persistence...
. The toxic chemicals also accumulated in sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
s that settled to the river bottom. The highest concentration of PCBs comes from the Thompson Island Pool.
In 1966, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and Toshi Seeger founded Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is an organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education...
, an environmental education organization and an actual boat (a sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
), 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 caused by GE and other companies.
There are many economic effects caused by the PCB Contamination. The water cannot be used for agriculture use, money is lost from the fishing industry because of the ban on recreational fishing, medical expenses for people who have side-effects from the water, and the cost of clean-up efforts.
In 1976 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
banned all fishing in the Upper Hudson
Upper Hudson River Valley
The northern portion of the Hudson River valley in Upstate New York, generally that region extending from the first town below the headwaters of the Hudson River at North River to the last substantive waterfall preventing the passage of vessels at Fort Edward...
due to health concerns with PCBs. PCBs are thought to be responsible for health issues that include Neurological Disorders, lower IQ and poor short-term memory (active memory), hormonal disruption, suppressed immune system, cancer, skin Irritations, Parkinson’s Disease, ADHD, heart disease, and diabetes. PCB contamination in humans come from drinking the contaminated water, absorption through the skin, eating contaminated aquatic life, and inhaling volatilized PCBs. PCB contamination is especially dangerous for pregnant and nursing women. The contamination can reach the fetus and potentially cause birth defects. Contamination through breast milk can also have harmful effects on the child indirectly.
In 1977, PCBS were banned in the United States. In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) declared a 200-mile (322-km) stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, to be a Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site requiring cleanup.This superfund site is considered to be one of the largest in the nation. In 2001, after a ten year study of PCB contamination in the Hudson River, the EPA proposed a plan to clean up the river by dredging more than 100,000 pounds of PCBs. The worst PCB hotspots are targeted for remediation by removing and disposing of more than 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The dredging project is the most aggressive environmental effort ever proposed to clean up a river, and will cost GE about $460,000,000. GE began sediment dredging operations to clean up the PCBs on May 15, 2009. This stage (Phase One) of the cleanup was completed in October 2009, and was responsible for the removal of approximately 300,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, which was more than the targeted amount. Over 620 barges filled with sediment were transported to the processing facility on the Champlain Canal, and over 80 rail cars transported the dredged sediment to a waste facility in Andrews, Texas. The true scope of Phase One was about 100,000 cubic yards more than planned, and Phase Two will be expanded as a consequence. Before Phase two of the cleanup, GE was given the opportunity to opt out of the clean up efforts, but they chose to complete the project. Phase two of the cleanup project, led by GE and monitored by the EPA, began in June 2011. This phase targets approximately 2.4 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a forty mile section of the Upper Hudson River. Phase Two of the clean up will take approximately 5 to 7 years to complete.
Other pollutants
Other ongoing pollutionWater pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
issues affecting the river include: accidental sewage discharges
Sanitary sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow is a condition whereby untreated sewage is discharged into the environment prior to reaching treatment facilities thereby escaping wastewater treatment. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. It is primarily meaningful in developed countries,...
, urban runoff
Urban runoff
Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater created by urbanization. This runoff is a major source of water pollution in many parts of the United States and other urban communities worldwide.-Overview:...
, heavy metals
Heavy metals
A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties. It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides. Many different definitions have been proposed—some based on density, some on atomic number or atomic weight,...
, furans, dioxin, pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
A study reported in the August 2008 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry suggests that mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
in common Hudson River fish, including striped bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
, yellow perch
Yellow perch
The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...
, largemouth bass
Largemouth bass
The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
, smallmouth bass
Smallmouth bass
The smallmouth bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of the order Perciformes. It is the type species of its genus...
and carp
Carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...
, 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
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
. 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 as having impaired water quality
Water quality
Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...
due to PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
s, cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
, 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
Saw Mill River
The Saw Mill River is a 20 mile long tributary of the Hudson River in the United States, flowing from a marsh in Chappaqua to Yonkers, New York, where it empties into the Hudson. Its starting point in Chappaqua is presumed to be a spring. In the 17th century, the Saw Mill River was known as...
, Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries...
, Hoosic River
Hoosic River
The Hoosic River, also known as the Hoosac, the Hoosick and the Hoosuck , is a tributary of the Hudson River in the northeastern United States. The different spellings are the result of varying transliterations of the river's original Algonquian name...
, Quaker Creek, and Batten Kill
Batten Kill
The Batten Kill, or Battenkill, or the Battenkill River, is a river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary of the Hudson River....
. Many lakes in the Hudson drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
are also listed.
Proposed hydroelectric facility
In 1980, Consolidated EdisonConsolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
(Con Ed) agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric power generation used by some power plants for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps...
facility on Storm King Mountain. The actions of local citizen organizations that led to the Con Ed decision spurred the creation of Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is an environmental non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water...
, a non-profit environmental organization that grew into a global umbrella organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is an environmental organization founded in 1999, responding to a growing movement of organizations with the name Riverkeeper, Baykeeper, Soundkeeper, and other related "keeper" names, of which there are over 150 around the globe...
.
Cooling water withdrawals
In 2010 NYSDEC charged that the Indian Point Energy CenterIndian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, New York just south of Peekskill. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, 38 miles north of New York City...
, a nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
in Buchanan
Buchanan, New York
Buchanan is a village located in the town of Cortlandt in Westchester County, New York. The population was 2,230 as of the 2010 census.The Indian Point nuclear power plant is located in Buchanan.-Geography:Buchanan is located at ....
, is violating the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
due to its large withdrawals of water from the Hudson, which kills millions of fish and other aquatic organisms each year. The state is demanding that Entergy
Entergy
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. It is headquartered in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:...
, the plant operator, construct cooling tower
Cooling tower
Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers rely...
s to mitigate the environmental impacts.
The Hudson River estuary system is part of The National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
See also
- Hudson River ChainHudson River ChainThe Hudson River Chain may refer to any of several chains used as a blockade across the Hudson River intended to prevent British naval vessels from proceeding up the river during the American Revolutionary War.-The Great Chain :...
- Hudson River Region AVAHudson River Region AVAThe Hudson River Region AVA is an American Viticultural Area around the Hudson River in eastern New York. The region is home to the oldest continuously operating winery in North America, the Brotherhood Winery, established in 1839. The oldest continusously cultivated vineyard in North America is...
- List of Hudson River Islands
- List of fixed crossings of the Hudson River
- List of ferries across the Hudson River in New York City
- List of New Jersey rivers
- List of New York rivers
- Upper Hudson River ValleyUpper Hudson River ValleyThe northern portion of the Hudson River valley in Upstate New York, generally that region extending from the first town below the headwaters of the Hudson River at North River to the last substantive waterfall preventing the passage of vessels at Fort Edward...
- Hudson CanyonHudson Canyon__notoc__The Hudson Canyon is a submarine canyon that begins from the shallow outlet of the estuary at the mouth of the Hudson River. It extends out over seaward across the continental shelf finally connecting to the deep ocean basin at a depth of 3 to 4 km below sea level...
- A submarine canyonSubmarine canyonA submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley on the sea floor of the continental slope. Many submarine canyons are found as extensions to large rivers; however there are some that have no such association. Canyons cutting the continental slopes have been found at depths greater than 2 km below sea...
extending hundreds of miles into the Atlantic Ocean that connects Hudson River to the deep ocean basin. - Hudson River Waterfront WalkwayHudson River Waterfront WalkwayThe Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is an ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River, implemented as part of a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities...
- Poughkeepsie Yacht ClubPoughkeepsie Yacht ClubThe Poughkeepsie Yacht Club is a small private yacht club based in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. The club is one of the earliest yachting institutions in America and founded in 1892. The Club's members have contributed to the sport of yachting, sailing, rowing, and ice-boating...
- US Airways Flight 1549US Airways Flight 1549US Airways Flight 1549 was US Airways' scheduled domestic commercial passenger flight from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina...
, which had a forced landing in the Hudson in January 2009 - Geography of New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary
External links
- Historic Hudson River Towns, Inc. - Official site
- Hudson Riverkeeper
- Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
- Scenic Hudson
- Hudson River Foundation
- The River Project
- HudsonWatch.net - dealing with General Electric Company's Hudson River/PCB Cleanup and related matters
- Hudson River Watertrail Association
- The Hudson River Environmental Society
- Hudson River Maritime Museum
- Hudson River History
- Groundwork Hudson Valley & Saw Mill River Coalition
- Chronology - Hudson River
- Beczak Environmental Education Center