NEWBURGH, a city of Orange county, New York, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Hudson river, opposite Beacon, 6o m. N. of New York city. It is on Federal highway 9W ; is served by the Erie and the West Shore railways, motor-bus and truck lines; and is connected by ferry with the New York Central at Beacon. Pop. (1920) 30,366 (82% native white) ; in 1930, 31,275, a gain of 3.o%. The Hudson widens at this point into Newburgh bay. The city has 2 m. of water front, with a channel deep enough for ocean-going vessels. It occupies a commanding position on terraces rising abruptly from the river, and from the higher points the view embraces many miles of the Hudson and reaches to the Catskill mountains on the north-west. Newburgh has a retail trade amounting to $11,000,000 annually; a large shipping trade in orchard, farm and dairy products ; and a variety of manufacturing industries, with an output in 1927 valued at $27,790,107. The assessed valuation for 1927 was $38,387,945. Since 1916 the city has operated under a commission-manager form of government.
Newburgh was settled in 1709 by 53 Germans from the Rhenish Palatinate, led by their minister, Joshua Kockethal. Toward the middle of the century many of the Germans moved to Pennsyl vania, and their lands were taken up by Scottish and English settlers, who in 1752 named the town after Newburgh, Scotland, from which some of them had come. Washington made his head quarters here from the spring of 1782 until Aug. 1783, in the Dutch farmhouse built by Jonathan Hasbrouck in 1750 (still standing in Washington park). Here he wrote his letter of May 27, 1782, rebuking Col. Nicola for the suggestion that he assume the title of king; here he made his reply to the "Newburgh Addresses" calling for action by the army to force Congress to redress its grievances; and here the arrangements were completed for demo bilizing the Continental army. Newburgh was incorporated as a village in 1800 and as a city in 1865.