HUDSON, called also the NORTH RIVER, "the Rhine of America," one of the most important and beautiful streams of the United States. It rises in the Adirondack maintain region, and runs almost due s. from the neighborhood of lake George to New York bay, a course of nearly 200 miles. Down as far as Troy it is broken by falls and rapids, but thenceforth to the sea it is a tidal stream varying from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width, and with the exception of the shallows a short distance below Albany, in every part navigable for steamboats and light-draught sailing-vessels. It has been improved on the shallow part, and there is now no obstruction as far up as Troy, 151 m. above New York. The scenery of this river is especially fine. Sailing n. from New York city one passes on the e. side the heights of Fort Washington and the village of In wood on the upper part of Manhattan island; Spuyten Duyvel creek, connecting with the Harlem river and so separating Manhattan from the mainland; then the village of Riverdale, near which are the buildings of Mt. St. Vincent, the mother-house of the sisters of charity, the central building being a granite castle originally erected for his own dwelling by Edwin Forrest, the actor; the suburban city of Yonkers, one of the most beautiful of towns both naturally and in its elegant residences; and the villages of Hastings and Dobb's Ferry. On the w. side the palisades extend, an unbroken wall of rock from 250 to 600 ft. high, from Hoboken, opposite New York, to Piermont, nearly opposite Dobb's Ferry. At this point, 20 in. from New York, the river spreads out into the Tappan Zee, 31 m. wide and 10 m. long. On the e. shore are Irvington, just n. of which is Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving; Tarrytown, with Sleepy Hollow close by; and Sing Sing, a beautiful village, with the state penitentiary conspicuous from the river. All along this part of the river-bank are palatial residences with park like grounds. On the w. side the palisades fall back into sloping hills some miles dis tant from the river, and give place for the villages of Piermont and Nyack and their adjoining farms. Above Nyack the mountains again come out to the river, and on the e. side Croton point, projecting from near the village of Cortland, bounds Tappan Zee on the n. and separates it from Haverstraw bay, named after the village which is the
great brick manufactory of the country. I-Iaverstraw bay in turn ends northward with the narrow pass between Stony Point on the w. and Verplanck's Point on the east. The highlands now loom up boldly in front, and after we pass Peekskill, on the right, the river narrows again and winds between Anthony's Nose on the e. and Dunderberg and forts Clinton and Montgomery on the west. Bending our course to the n.e. and then to the n.w., we pass around West Point, the picturesque seat of the U. S. military academy, then by Cornwall, also on the w. bank, and the river widening into the bay named from Newburg, a beautiful city rising from the w. bank, while 15 m. above, on the e. bank, is the city of Poughkeepsie. The course of the river now is more directly n. and s., and we pass on the e. the villages of Rhinebeck, Barrytown, and Tivoli, and on the w. Rondout and Kingston, since 1872 united in one city, the villages of Saugerties and Malden, and Catskill, with the mountains of that name towering just inland. A little farther up, on the e. side, is the city of Hudson, and above Hudson the villages of Stuyvesant, Castleton, and Greenbush, and on the Nv. side Athens, Coxsackie, New Baltimore, Coeymans, Overslaugh, and the city of Albany. Here the river is crossed by the first bridge, that of the New York Central railroad. A few miles above, the Mohawk river, the largest branch, enters from the w., and close by it the Erie canal, while on the e. side stands the city of Troy. The upper river flows through a pic turesque country, and along its banks are a number of handsome towns and villages, among the most important being Lansingburg, Waterford, Fort Edward, and Glens Falls. The Hudson river was seen by Verrazano in 1525, but was not explored until the arrival of Henry Hudson in Sept., 1609: He went up nearly to the present site of Albany, and named the stream "the river of the mountains." It was afterwards called Mauritius, after prince Maurice of Nassau, and finally the Hudson or, geographically, the North river, the Delaware being the South river. Its Indian name was Shatemuc. It was on the Hudson river that Robert Fulton made his first successful experiments in steam navigation.