HUDSON, a river in New York, United States, and one of the most beautiful and important in America. It rises in the Adirondack mountains, 4,000 ft. above the level of the sea, and its head-streams are the outlets of many mountain lakes in the north-eastern portion of the state. At Glens Falls it has a fall of• 50 ft., and soon after, taking a southerly course, runs nearly in a straight line to its mouth at New York city. At Troy, 151 m. from its mouth, it is affected by the tide and becomes a broad deep river, having a width of from 300 to 700 yards, and deep enough for the largest river steamboats and for ships to Hudson, 116 miles. At Newburg, 01 m. from New York. the river enters the highlands, which rise abruptly from the water to the height of 1200 to 1000 feet. Here the scenery is of great beauty and grandeur, and is admired by all travelers. Several of the heights are crowned With the ruins of fortifications built to prevent the passage of British ships in the war of in dependence. Here was the scene of Arnold's treason and the sad fate of znaj. Andre. Emerging from the highlands, the river widens into a broad expanse called the Tappan Zee. on the w. bank, on the New Jersey shore, rises an almost straight and
perpendicular wall of trap-rock, from the river's brink to a height of 300 to' 500 ft., called the palisades, extending 15 m. to the upper portion of the city of New York. The river is here. from 1 to 2 at and here it falls York bay.
Its whole length is about 300 m., and its principal tributaries are the floosie, Mohawk, Walkill, and Croton. The steamboats which ply on the Hudson are among the finest and fastest in the world. Some are more than 400 ft. long. are fitted up with great luxury, and attain a speed of 23 to 24 m. an hour. The Hudson River railway runs along the margin of the river on the e. bank to Albany. By this river, and the Erie canal, and several railways New York is connected with the great lakes and the west. The river is named from the English navigator who discovered it, 1609. The first suc cessful experiment in steamboat navigation was made on this river by Robert Fulton in 1807.