The
Hudson River was first discovered and explored by Henry Hudson in 1609. He was an English navigator employed by the
Dutch to find a northwest passage to the Orient. With a crew of 20 in his ship, the Half Moon, he traveled as far north as present day Albany over a 2 week period and
marveled at the lushness of the landscape.
His discovery led to the future colonization of the area by the Dutch.
Technically, the Hudson is not a river. It is a fjord as it is tidal all the way to
Albany. Albany itself, 150 miles
upstream from NYC, is subject to 5’ tides and the currents this imposes. A dam and canal in Troy stops the tidal
influence.
Once
again we passed through New York Harbor for a sight you can never get tired of
seeing.
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| New York Skyline with Lady Liberty |
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| Ellis Island |
As
we passed under the Tappan Zee Bridge we were treated to a remarkable
construction effort. Two new bridges are
underway with numerous cranes and barges and one purpose built crane for
lifting major bridge girders in place.
The site brought out the engineer in Jim. Unfortunately, the very next day one of the
cranes collapsed across the active bridge causing traffic chaos, but few
injuries.
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| New Tappan Zee Bridge Under Construction |
Using
the small town of Croton-on Hudson as a base we took the train south to NYC
where we met our friends Dorothy and Al Oliver once again. Starting with a very late lunch at Langans we
walked on to Sardi’s for happy hour.
Dorothy and Debby are two peas in a pod, so shortly we were talking with
the grandson of the original owner of the place. Sardi’s has been famous among the theater set
for many years and has over 2000 caricatures of well known thespians hanging on
its walls. Not sure if it was the result
of too much Happy Hour, but Jim’s pictures of the place did not come out.
Traveling
along the Hudson on a sunny day you are treated to a panorama of cliffs,
mountains in the background and stately homes on the hill tops. Along the way you can trace the early history
of the countries development both politically and commercially. West Point is particularly imposing giving
the impression of being much larger than the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
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| West Point Military Academy |
We
spent 2 nights in Kingston, NY which is a little over half way up the
river. In the 1800s this was a booming
transportation hub. It was the terminus
of the Delaware and Hudson canal which was built to transport coal from
Pennsylvania to New York City. In
addition to coal, cement and bricks were made here and fed the building boom in
NYC throughout the 19th century.
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| Typical Hudson River Lighthouse |
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| Hudson Athens Lighthouse 1873 |
We
spent one uneventful night in Albany at the Albany Yacht Club prior to entering
the Erie Canal.
