THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY

We cruised approximately 160 miles of the Hudson River from its intersection with the Harlem River in New York City to its intersection with the Mohawk River (Erie Canal) in Troy, New York.  We visited several small towns including Nyack, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Athens, Albany and Troy.  Each of these towns is unique, but each of them bear several things in common - archetecture, industrial history, proximity to the river, and depressed economy.  These commonalities result in a perspective that is more hollistic; The Hudson River valley is not just a valley.  It is not just a river.  It is a style.  It is an essence.  The Hudson River Valley could be its own country.  It demonstrates regional uniquity different from anything we have experienced so far.

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NAYACK ON HUDSON:
We stopped here because neither of us had ever heard of it before.  It is a little gem of a town on the Hudson River with lots of cool stores and traditional style homes.  This was our first stop on the Hudson River.  We really had no preconceived notions of what Hudson River towns would be like.  Ultimately we discovered they are all very similar, except for the larger cities such as Albany.
Nyack’s downtown, the heart of the village’s active social life, features regional attractions including festivals, street fairs, parades, a farmer’s market, theaters, restaurants and nightclubs.

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The lower Hudson is actually a tidal estuary.  We experienced tidal swings of up to 6 feet as far up the river as the Federal Dam at Troy.  The tides are strong and could severely help or inhibit travel.  It seemed like we were always running against the tide.  We averaged 5 knots almost the entire way up.  There were very few occasions where we actually caught the tide and sizzled along at up to nine knots, but those were few and far between.  Interestingly, because of the tidal swings, the Mahican Indians who inhabited the area before the European settlers called the river,  Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, which means "the river that flows both ways."  Thus, while the Hudson is often mistaken for one of the largest rivers in the United States, it is actually a tidal estuary throughout most of its length below Troy.

The river was viewed by many as a catalyst for profit in the late 18th and 19 centuries. Industry was a very important part of the development and growth of the river’s economy, much of it driven by the needs of New York City and facilitated by the ease of river transport. It was the primary means of trade and travel until the Hudson River Railroad.  Economic growth and sustainability depended on the development and growth over the years of industries including, but not limited to lumber and sawmills, gristmills and papermills. 

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POUGHKEEPSIE:
Poughkeepsie has no waterfront, so we stayed at a free dock across the river from Poughkeepsie attached to a restaurant called Mariner's.  However, there is a bridge in Poughkeepsie that is notable.

The 120-year-old Poughkeepsie-Highland bridge had been unused and poorly maintained since a fire forced its closure in 1974. The new trail provides public access to the Hudson River's scenic landscape for pedestrians, hikers, joggers, bicyclists, and people with disabilities.  The bridge is 6,767 feet long (approximately 1.25 miles). The top of the bridge deck is 212 feet above the water. It was built soon after the Brooklyn Bridge, but the Poughkeepsie-Highland structure is both longer and higher above the water than the Brooklyn Bridge. Walkway Over the Hudson, a local nonprofit organization, owns and manages the bridge and trail.

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Many of the NYC houses were built with brownstone quarried from the Hudson River palisades. Many of NYC’s blue stone pavers came from the Catskill’s. 

West Point Academy.  What a fortress!!  There used to be access for boaters in the marina out front, but due to security concerns, boaters are no longer welcome in the marina or the mooring fields.  Unfortunately, the only way to get to tour the facility is to get there by automobile or tour bus.

There is still some industry left on the Hudson as is evidenced by this 12-pack carrying loads of quarried materials.

Brick making was centered in Haverstraw as well as in Kingston and elsewhere along the river.  The river bottom clay was perfect for making bricks.  We saw a number of areas of Hudson shoreline covered with bricks just as other shores are covered with naturally occurring stone.

The capital of sloop building was Nyack in the early 19^th century.  Later, Newburgh and Roundout (Kingston) took over as centers of steamboat building.

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KINGSTON:

Kingston was an interesting stop because of it's location up Roundout Creek.    We found wonderful and friendly folks at the Kingston City Dock.  Kingston was selected as a stopping point because it is the home of the best nautical museum about the Hudson River there is.  No doubt about that.  We learned a lot. We also enjoyed a festive Latin Festival taking place in the town waterfront square.  Good food and music was the theme.  Unfortunately, the weather was not all that festive and the celebration came to an abrupt stop with the abrupt start of dismal rainfall.  Nevertheless, we walked all over Kingston, which walking can be characterized by hill climbing.  Good thing I have a new pair of shoes.  Kingston was industrial once upon a time.  Unfortunately, it like so many other Hudson River towns, has suffered in this poor economy.  Factories have closed and the town is looking to tourism to help pad its coffers.  Unfortunately, it is not enough, and the further up the river we go, the more and more folks just look tired and beat up, as do the buildings in town.  The vistas, however, are pretty.  Each time, we wonder what it would look like in the winter covered with snow.

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Local iron ore deposits and plenty of lumber to fuel the foundries urged on iron making as a significant industrial contributor on the Hudson River.

Hudson River foundries were responsible for the first all-iron ship in the country, the engine for the first American-made locomotive and the Parrot gun, a cannon credited with being instrumental in the Union's victory in the Civil War.

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ATHENS:

The Village of Athens sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, four miles north of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge in Greene County. First settled in the late 17th century, the village, a port on the Hudson-Athens Ferry, became a thriving hub for shipbuilding, brick making and ice harvesting.

We had a beautiful anchorage outside the town of Athens.  Here the Hudson River is split by an island. Athens is on the west side.  Few boats use the west side, so it is reasonably calm.  We dropped the hook as the rain was just starting to fall and the sky was turning quite dark and ominous.  It was pretty hot and muggy.  We just turned on the a/c and relaxed with cocktails after what was otherwise a very long day on the water.  We passed two other anchorages due to the fact that they were very narrow and shallow.  This place, however, was plenty wide and offered plenty of protection from the weather coming at us from the west.  It never got as bad as we anticipated.  That's fine.
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Hot Dog Anyone?

Cement making is an industry that still exists today on the river using local limestone deposits, as well as leather tanning in the Catskills.

However, ice harvesting, was big business. The ice house at Barrytown, owned by the Mutual Benefit Ice Company, could hold 60,000 tons of ice and the Knickerbocker Ice Company, which cut ice from Rockland Lake in Rockland County, employed as many as 3,000 people.

Fishing was the staple of Hudson Valley communities. Most fished locally and sold locally, however, sturgeon and shad were also shipped to other markets on sloops and schooners, then steamboats.

For a short period in the early 19th century, whaling ships could be seen in ports along the Hudson River. Hudson was one major seaport, and Poughkeepsie was home to two whaling companies - Poughkeepsie Whaling and Dutchess Whaling.

Unfortunately, over the years, industry on the Hudson River took a serious toll.

The history of the Hudson as a working river is well documented, as is the resulting pollution of the river. There are multiple contaminants in the river as a result of decades of industrial dumping in the water; however, based on studies performed by multiple government agencies (e.g., the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers) and private contractors, polycyclic chlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are the primary chemicals of concern (COC).

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ALBANY:

Albany is the capital of the State of New York.  The history of Albany is very much a function of its 19th and early 20th century architecture.  Henry Hudson discovered Albany while seeking a shorter route to the far-east in 1609. Soon after, Dutch merchants settled here to bring furs from the north and ship them to Europe. The area grew in size as it became the gateway to the northeast passage. Later, Albany's industrial history was carved out of its location as the point where the navigable Hudson River ended and the Erie Canal began.  Today, it is very much an all business-government community.  Its history is not lost, however, it just seems to be put on the back shelf.

These days the Hudson River is still a legend known for being so devastatingly contaminated and for being the subject of one of the largest, most innovative - and most expensive - environmental remediation projects in US history. 

Many people, particularly residents of the communities along the river, believe that the river is cleaning itself up. They cite trends of reduced levels of PCBs in the lower river and increased clarity of water. However, PCBs are invisible, odorless, persistent in the environment, and are absorbed into the river sediment. Thus, the damage they do is hidden and insidious, as they bioaccumulate up through the food chain from plants growing in the sediment to the microorganisms feeding on those plants to the fish feeding on the organisms and ultimately to the animals and people that feed on the fish. 

Some companies continue to dump in the river. And perhaps most critically, there are multiple tributaries to the river, many of which are contaminated themselves. While you can fish in the Hudson River, you should not eat any of the fish that come out of the river.

From this nation's beginning, the Hudson River has played an important role in the country's growth and development. The Hudson was the first great river encountered by the European settlers.  As such, it played a pivotal role in the country's early commercial, military and cultural history. From the steamboat to the Erie Canal, the Hudson opened a world to the west.
 
Today the river, once polluted and dying, is getting more healthy and is regenerating itself. Its waters are patrolled to keep polluters and illegal commercial fishermen in check. And the communities along its banks work hard to preserve its beauty and resources for generations to come. 

This is the Federal Lock aka Troy Lock marking the top of the Hudson and where it splits.  If you go straight, you go onto the Champlain Canal part of the Hudson River that will take you all the way to the St. Lawrence River.  If you go to the left, however, you will go onto the Erie Canal which will take you all the way to Lake Erie - a gateway to the Great Lakes.