Hudson

Hudson, a river in New York, and one of the most beautiful and important in America. It rises in the Adirondack Mountains, 4326 feet above the level of the sea, its head-streams the outlets of many mountain-lakes. At Glen's Falls it has a fall of 50 feet, and soon after, taking a southerly course, runs nearly in a straight line to its mouth, at New York city. It is tidal up to Troy, 151 miles from its mouth, and magnificent steamboats ply daily between New York and Albany. Below Newburg, 60 miles from New York, the river enters the highlands, which rise abruptly from the water to the height of 1600 feet. Here historical associations add to the interest of scenery of singular beauty and grandeur: here was the scene of Arnold's treason and of André's fate; and at West Point, the seat of the United States military academy, 8 miles below Newburg, are the ruins of Fort Putnam, built during the war of independence. Emerging from the highlands, the river widens into a broad expanse called Tappan Bay, which is $4\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ miles wide and 13 long. Below, on the right bank, a steep wall of trap rock, called the Palisades, rises from the river's brink to a height of 300 to 510 feet, and extends for nearly 20 miles to the upper portion of the city of New York. The river from here is known as the North River, and is from 1 to 2 miles wide; and after passing between New York and Hoboken and Jersey City, it falls into New York Bay. Its whole length is about 350 miles, and its principal tributaries are the Saconadaga, Mohawk, and Walkill. The Hudson has valuable shad and sturgeon fisheries. The Hudson River Railway, connecting New York with Albany, runs along the east bank. The river, named from the English navigator who explored it in 1609, is connected by canals with Lakes Erie and Champlain, and with the Delaware River. In 1894 a suspension bridge connecting New York and Jersey City was sanctioned, and the plans approved in 1895. Robert Fulton's first successful experiment in steamboat navigation was made on this river in 1807. See 'Our River,' by John Burroughs, in Scribner's Monthly (August 1880); the Panorama of the Hudson (as far as Albany; New York, 1888); and Wallace Bruce, The Hudson (1895).