HUDSON, the largest river in the State of New York, has its head waters in Hamilton and Essex counties, and flows southwest into Saratoga County, then nearly directly east to Sandy Hill in Washington County, and from this point south through New York Bay into the Atlantic Ocean. It is fed by several of the Adirondack lakes, a number of small streams, and by Schroon River, Batten Kill, Hoosick, Wappinger and Croton from the east, and the Sacandaga, Mohawk, Wallkill and Esopus Creek from the west. The Mohawk (q.v.), which flows into the Hudson at Cohoes, is the largest tributary; the Rondout enters the Wall kill near the Hudson. The head waters of the Hudson and the sources of several of the streams which flow into the Saint Lawrence are very near each other in the Adirondack Mountains. At Troy, three miles below the mouth of the Mohawk, the Hudson becomes a navigable tidal stream. There is a tidal rise of about one foot at Albany. Above Troy there are a number of rapids and long falls in the river; but below, the navigation is uninter rupted. At one time there were a few obsta cles, the largest of which was *Overslaugh,* or Castleton Bar, at Castleton. This hindrance to navigation has been almost wholly removed by the Federal and State governments. The Cats kill Mountains, on the west side, begin about 25 miles below Albany. Lower down are the Highlands, averaging about 1,100 feet in height, which extend along the shore for a dis tance of about 20 miles. The Highlands of the Hudson are noted for their beautiful scenery. On the west bank are the famous Palisades (q.v.) about 13 miles long, their southern ex tremity being near Fort Lee, in New Jersey, and the northern extremity near Piermont, N. Y. This remarkable arrangement of rock rises from near the water's edge, almost per pendicularly, from 350 to 550 feet. Below Ver planck and Stony Point is an expansion in the river, the upper pant of which is called Haver straw Bay and the lower part Tappan Sea. Many small islands in the river serve as foun dations for lighthouses, or for the erection of dredging platforms. Iona, on which there is now a naval station, Constitution and Beeren islands have all figured in history. Below Al bany the Hudson is more an estuary or fiord than a river, which accounts for the great depth of water. The area drained by the Hudson above where the Mohawk enters is about 30,000 square miles. The river is noted for its beau tiful scenery from the source to the mouth. Along the lower part of its course there are many fine residences, as a large part of the country on both banks from New York to Albany is now a residential section. The Hud son is fittingly called the °Rhine of America.* Hudson River was discovered by Verrazano, an Italian navigator, in 1524; but it was ex plored by Henry Hudson in 1609. The Indian name for the river was Shatemuc, and the first colonists called it North River, as the Delaware was then called South River. The part of the river west of New York city is still called North River; but it was given the name Hud son in honor of its first explorer. The history of the country since its discovery by Europeans occupies an important place in the history of the United States. The almost unbroken waterway from the Atlantic Ocean through what is now the State of New York, to the Saint Lawrence River, made this an important route for missionaries, traders and for the armies in the various wars. From the mouth of Lake Champlain to Lake George, across the portage from Lake George to the Hudson, and the Hudson to the ocean, was all disputed ter ritory, and the scene of many a contest of the Revolutionary War. See CHAMPLAIN, LAKE; CROWN POINT; HAVERSTRAW ; TICONDEROGA.
The river is navigable for ships of the first class for about 117 miles from the ocean. Its whole length is about 300 miles. Before the in
troduction of railroads, the waters of the Hudson, connecting New York with a large section of country, gave the city great oppor tunities for development. A canal built along the Mohawk Valley, in 1817-25, connected the Hudson with Lake Erie, and the Champlain Canal completed the water route from the Hud son to Lake Champlain. Later the Erie and the Delaware and Hudson railroads brought the coal of Pennsylvania to the Hudson River for transportation by water to markets in the inte rior. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad is on the east side of the river and the West Shore on the west side. In 1807 Robert Fulton made on this river the first suc cessful experiment with steam navigation. The Hudson is now a thoroughfare for an immense amount of freight, and elegant passenger steamers ply daily between New York and Al bany. The government has erected and main tains 21 lighthouses and lighted beacons. Navi gation ceases in winter because the river is frozen nearly its whole length. The ice crop harvested each winter on that part of the river between Albany and the Highlands is shipped, when navigation opens, chiefly to New York city. Shad fishing is one of the important Hudson River industries. Many of the cities on the Hudson were at first only trading posts or ferry towns, but nearly all have kept pace in development with the rest of the State. The principal cities and towns on the river from north to south are Glens Falls, Sandy Hill, Fort Edward, Mechanicsville, Cohoes, Troy, Albany, Hudson, Catskill, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, West Point, Peekskill, Haverstraw, Ossining, Nyack, Tarrytown and Yonkers. At the mouth of the river are New York and Jer sey City, with the suburbs, which are important shipping ports, Hoboken and Weehawken. The only bridge crossing the river between New York and Albany is the one which ex tends from Poughkeepsie on the east side to Highland on the west. There are 14 public fer ries. The use of the water power of the Hud son as an aid in developing electrical power for the mechanical arts is most important. From Mechanicsville the power of the Hudson is transmitted to the General Electric shops of Schenectady. At Spiers Falls, at the foot of Mount McGregor, about 40 miles above Albany, there is a stone dam over 1,800 feet long, 100 feet high and containing 1,800,000 cubic feet of masonry. The Hudson is raised 50 feet above its former river bed, then its waters fall 80 feet, and the power developed is transmitted for electrical machinery to Schenectady, Al bany, Troy, Amsterdam and other places. This power development of the waters of the Hudson combined with development of like power of the waters of the Saint Lawrence at Massena keeps the two rivers, as in earlyyears of our country, of vast importance to the State.
industries ndustries are affected by this great new power, not the least of which are the coal mining of Pennsylvania and the preservation of the Adirondack forests.
The Hudson occupies an important place in the historical, commercial and mechanical de velopment of the nation, also in its literary and artistic progress. Washington Irving who lived at °Sunny Side° and was laid to rest in Tarrytown, introduced to the world many of the places alon the Hudson. Cro' Nest is associated with; oseph Rodman Drake and his poem,