The Hudson River

The Hudson River has played a prominent roll in the history of the State of New York and America. This collection of writings documents a writers sojourn along the Hudson River as he explains in poignant language the features, locations, history and tales of the Hudson River.

Hendrick Hudson and Robert Fulton are closely associated in the history of our river, and more particularly at this time, as the dates of their achievements unite the centennial of the first successful steamer in 1807, with the tri-centennial of the discovery of the river in 1609. In fact, these three centuries of navigation, with rapidly increasing development in later years, might be graphically condensed.

“Half Moon,” 1609;
“Clermont,” 1807;
“Hendrick Hudson,” 1906.

Singularly enough the discovery of Hendrick Hudson, and the invention of Robert Fulton are also similar in having many adverse claimants who forget the difference between attempt and accomplishment.

Everyone knows that Verrazano entered the Narrows and harbor of our river in 1524, and sailed far enough to see the outline of the Palisades; that Gomez visited its mouth in 1525; Cabot still earlier in 1498; and various Norsemen, named and nameless, for several centuries before them, coasted along the shore and indenture of the “River of the Manhattoes,” but failed to acquire or transmit any knowledge of the river’s real course or character, and it was left for Hendrick Hudson to be its first voyager and thereby to have and to hold against all comers the glory of discovery.

• Discovery of the Hudson River
  • The Hudson
  • An Open Book
  • The Hudson and the Rhine
  • The Half Moon
  • First Description
  • Names of the Hudson
  • Hills and Mountains
  • Sources of the Hudson
• Early Settlement of the Hudson River
  • The West India Company
  • Original Manors and Patents
  • New Amsterdam
  • The Dutch and the English
  • New York
  • A Page of Patriotism
  • Sons of Liberty
  • Greater New York
    • Brooklyn
    • Jersey City
• Hudson River Steamboats
  • Day Line Steamers
    • The Hendrick Hudson
    • The New York
    • The Albany
  • The Old Reaches
  • Five Divisions of the Hudson
    • Suggestions
    • The Brooklyn Annex
• Along the Hudson River in New York City
  • Desbrosses Street Pier to Forty-Second Street
  • Historic River Front
  • Stevens Castle
  • Forty-Second to One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth
  • Weehawken, Hamilton and Burr
  • Riverside Drive and Park
  • Columbia University
  • General Grant’s Tomb
  • The Thirteen Elm Trees
• New York City to Yonkers
  • Washington Heights
  • The Palisades
  • Island of Manhattan
  • Indian Head, Palisades
  • Spuyten Duyvel Creek
  • Yonkers
• Yonkers to West Point
  • Hastings and Dobbs Ferry
  • Tappan Zee and Piermont
  • Irvington and “Sunnyside”
  • Washington Irving
  • The Headless Horseman
  • Tarrytown and Tappan
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • Nyack
  • Ossining
• Croton River to West Point
  • Haverstraw
  • Stony Point
  • Tompkin’s Cove
  • Peekskill
  • Story of Captain Kidd
  • The Highlands
    • Dunderberg
    • Anthony’s Nose
    • Iona Island
  • Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery
  • Beverley House
  • Arnold’s Flight
  • Buttermilk Falls
  • West Point Military Academy
    • Plateau Buildings and Memorials
    • Fort Putnam
• West Point to Newburgh
  • Northern Gate of Highlands
  • “Undercliff”
  • Storm King
  • Pollopel’s Island
  • Cornwall and “Idlewild”
• Newburgh to Poughkeepsie
  • Washington’s Headquarters
  • Refusing the Crown
  • Cessation of Hostilities
  • Marquis de Lafayette
  • Centennial Celebration
  • Fishkill
  • Duyvel’s Dans Kammer
  • “Locust Grove”
  • The Storm Ship
  • Poughkeepsie
  • Vassar College
  • Eastman College
  • Dover Stone Church
• Poughkeepsie to Kingston
  • Hyde Park
  • Mount Hymettus
  • Rhinecliff
  • City of Kingston
  • The Senate House
  • The Southern Catskills
  • Big Indian
• Kingston to Catskill
  • Montgomery Place
  • Story of Steam Navigation
  • Robert Fulton
  • The “Clermont”
  • Tivoli
  • Saugerties
  • The Livingston Country
  • The “Shad Industry”
  • Germantown
  • Man in the Mountain
  • New York City Water Supply
  • The Clover Reach
  • Catskill
  • Otis Elevating Railway
• Catskill to Hudson
  • Hudson
  • Columbia Springs
  • Claverack and Hillsdale
  • Lindenwald
• Hudson to Albany
  • Athens
  • The Ice Industry
  • Coxsackie
  • The Mahican Tribe
  • The Mahicans, Delawares and Iroquois
  • The Old Van Rensselaer House
  • Albany
• Albany to Saratoga
  • Delaware and Hudson Railway
  • Saratoga
  • Historic Saratoga
  • Mount McGregor
  • Saratoga to the Adirondacks
    • Saratoga to Lake George
  • Lake George to the Adirondacks
    • Ticonderoga
    • Bluff Point
    • Plattsburgh and the Saranacs
• Source of the Hudson
  • The Tahawas Club
  • The Upper Ausable
  • Haystack and Camp Colden
  • The Deserted Village
  • Indian Head
  • Tahawas
• Geology of the Hudson River
  • Geological Formation
  • The Hudson Tide