{"id":1197,"date":"2016-06-01T10:29:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T14:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/?page_id=30"},"modified":"2017-12-08T21:58:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T02:58:02","slug":"hudson-river","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/hudson-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Hudson River"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Robert Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont, <\/em>1810. An early example of a steamboat (Image Source: New York Public Library).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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View of the Hudson River Valley. Travelers on the “Fashionable Tour” often passed through the Hudson River Valley (Image Source: New York Public Library).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Salmon. Officials in British colonial New York made an effort to secure the introduction and proliferation of the salmon in the Hudson River (Image Source: Pixabay).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Flag of Dutch West India Company, the owners of New Netherland, a colony that Henry Hudson’s explorations helped make possible (Image Source: New York Public Library).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Portrait of Henry Hudson (Image Source: New York Public Library).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\tHudson River\t<\/h3>\n
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Obiora Ene<\/p>\n

History of New York City<\/p>\n

Professor Fieldston<\/p>\n

9\/28\/17<\/p>\n

A Human History of the Hudson River<\/p>\n

Situated in North America, largely in what is now the northeastern United States, is the Hudson River. Human settlement in its vicinity has given it a unique history and this paper shall attempt to explain, in general history and some highlights, the relationship between the river and human activity of a social and economic nature.<\/p>\n

The Namesake<\/p>\n

\u00a0In 1609, in violation of the Dutch East India Company\u2019s instructions, Henry Hudson sailed to North America with the intent of finding the Northwest Passage. He ended up in New York harbor and traveled up a river to close to what is now Albany. During the journey, he wrote of the area\u2019s natural resources, which led the Dutch to invest in the area. The result was a colony called \u201cNew Netherland\u201d and the river Hudson traveled up is now called the Hudson River (though some called it the \u201cNorth River\u201d). [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Salmon in the River<\/p>\n

The salmon is not native to the Hudson, but was introduced to the river by human intervention. According to an 1893 article in Forest and Stream; A Journal of Outdoor Life, Travel, Nature Study, Shooting, Fishing, Yachting<\/em>, the first person to suggest salmon introduction is unknown but the idea goes back to the days when New York was a British colony. In the 1770s, residents of the colony wanted to introduce salmon in response to food security problems. In 1771, the colonial government permitted salmon introduction and, to allow the salmon population to grow, made it illegal, for a few years after their introduction, to take them out of the river and kill them. Offenders of this law had to pay the colony ten pounds. The writer also wrote that the laws protecting the Hudson River salmon population in colonial times are similar to the laws protecting salmon at the time the article was written and this observation may show how important salmon was to the lives of people who lived along the river.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Early Steamboat Rides<\/p>\n

In an 1873 article of the Chicago Daily Tribune<\/em>, there are the copied contents of an advertisement for Hudson River steamboat trips from 1808, along with schedules and fares from the period. From this article, one will find that early steamboat trips were long, as a trip from New York City to West Point was ten hours and to Poughkeepsie was seventeen hours. On top of that, the ad says that the arrival times posted may be off by an hour due to winds and tides and that it is a good idea to be at one of the designated places an hour before the boat\u2019s suggested arrival times. Even though there were designated stops, the ad said that one could get onto the boat at anywhere along the route so long as one knew when the boat would get to one\u2019s preferred location.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Prices for the rides varied by distance but for many passengers, from New York City to West Point was $2.50 and New York City to Poughkeepsie was $3.50. \u201cChildren\u201d (ages 1-5), \u201cyoung persons\u201d (ages 5-15) and \u201cservants\u201d were entitled to discounts based on sleeping arrangements.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Tourism<\/p>\n

According to Richard H. Gassan, around the early nineteenth century people traveled to northern America to complete the \u201cFashionable Tour,\u201d which involved traveling on Hudson River. Tour travelers had two goals, the first was to ape the European elite by visiting the mineral springs and the second was to ape the Romantics through the celebration (albeit superficially) of the natural world. [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea of touring New York State started gaining traction after the War of 1812. People would begin the tour in New York City and go through the Hudson River Valley, which Gassan called America\u2019s \u201cfirst tourist region.\u201d This title was due in part to a collection of artworks depicting the Hudson called the \u201cHudson Port Folio,\u201d which tried to sell New York City as a top tourist destination. Other media of the day such as newspapers, novels and magazines made touring the state more convincing to the middle class and some less-than-wealthy individuals made tours as soon as their finances permitted. [6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Iceboating<\/p>\n

According to one entry in the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia<\/em>, iceboating is the \u201csport of sailing a specially prepared boat equipped with runners over ice.\u201d Iceboating started with either the Finns and Lapps at an unknown date or with the Dutch in the eighteenth century. No matter who invented the sport, iceboating found a home on the Hudson River in the mid-eighteenth century and by the nineteenth century, the elite began engaging in the sport on the Hudson and other rivers like the Delaware and Navesink. Superseding the Hudson River as the heart of American iceboating in the twentieth century was the Midwest, where the general public sailed smaller boats. Nowadays, one can even enter \u201cThe Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America,\u201d which has been running since 1881. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental Damage<\/p>\n

Not all business along the Hudson River, as the last section would suggest, was pleasant, in the early twentieth century many business placed their factories along the river\u2019s banks and used the river as a dumping ground for their raw sewage and other pollutants. This practice was serious; between 1947 and 1977, General Electric\u2019s manufacturing sites at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, New York deposited between 105 and 650 tons of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson. The dumping did so much harm to the river that fishing was banned because the fish were too toxic for human consumption. The dumping of pollutants continued until the U.S. government intervened via the Federal Clean Water Act of the 1970s. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n

While individuals and government are making an effort to counter pollution and to bring the Hudson to a more pristine condition, there are some environmental activists who argue that the Hudson River is already clean enough to swim in. According to a 2006 article in the Washington Post, activists and state officials proposed creating a beach by the Hudson, near New York City\u2019s meatpacking district. [9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Iceberg Ride<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s stretch of the Hudson might not be a great place to swim but it was once the site of a trip by iceberg. According to a 1981 article, three teenagers were seen floating on an ice floe on the Hudson River. After riding the mass of ice for at least forty minutes, a helicopter from a police aviation unit in Brooklyn flew to an area near the George Washington Bridge and rescued the boys. Moments later, the three boys were arrested for their suspected involvement in the theft of a purse from a woman in Fort Tryon Park. Sergeant Robert Milletti, guessed that the boys stole the purse and were trying to flee to New Jersey via the frozen Hudson River. This story shows how far policing in and around New York City has advanced since the establishment of a standing police force in the city in 1845.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Sudden Impact<\/p>\n

On January 15, 2009, another wintertime disaster occurred. A flight from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, already delayed by a de-icing in connection with the plane\u2019s previous flight, faced calamity when some birds were caught in the plane\u2019s engines. Accounting for factors such as the compromised engines and the reality that landing at LaGuardia was unfeasible, Captain Chelsey \u201cSully\u201d Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles performed an emergency landing in the Hudson River, west of Manhattan and some of the survivors escaped with \u201cminor hypothermia,\u201d according to a contemporary USAToday<\/em> report. [11]<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/p>\n

When I chose this topic, I had a feeling there would be a lot to say about it. After doing all the research, I did not expect to learn some of the interesting tidbits mentioned above. I also did not think there would be a lot of history involving both the Hudson River and New York City, but I guess I was wrong.<\/p>\n

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Bibliography<\/h1>\n

Chicago Daily Tribune.<\/em> 1873. “The First Steamboat.: Traveling on the Hudson River in 1808.” July 6. https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/171423187\/519CDEDA19BE48F0PQ\/5?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

Cooper, Pamela. “Iceboating.” Encyclopedia of New Jersey. <\/em>Edited by Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Accessed October 2017. http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/entry\/rutgersnj\/iceboating\/0.<\/p>\n

Gross, Samantha. 2006. “a Push to Give Hudson a Beach: [FINAL Edition].” Washington Post<\/em>, May 30. https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/410008993\/9A0E4DFEC231416CPQ\/39?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

Fieldston, Sara. \u201cCity of Light: Antebellum Reform.\u201d Class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, 2017.<\/p>\n

Fieldston, Sara. \u201cClinton\u2019s Big Ditch.\u201d Class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, September 18, 2017.<\/p>\n

Fieldston, Sara. \u201cDutch New Amsterdam.\u201d Class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, August 30, 2017.<\/p>\n

Fieldston, Sara. \u201cDutch New Amsterdam.\u201d Class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, August 30, 2017.<\/p>\n

Gassan, Richard H. \u201cTourists and the City: New York\u2019s First Tourist Era, 1820-1840.\u201d Winterthur Portfolio <\/em>44, no. 2\/3 (Summer\/Autumn2010 2010): 221-245. Literary Reference Center, <\/em>EBSCOhost <\/em>(accessed October 10, 2017).<\/p>\n

Johnston, Laurie. 1981. “3 Boys Saved From Icy Hudson Are Accused of Purse Snatching.” New York Times<\/em>, January 19. https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/121519013\/fulltextPDF\/A807585E6632498EPQ\/1?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

Lagasse, Paul, and Columbia University. “Hudson, Henry.” The Columbia Encyclopedia.<\/em> 7th<\/sup> ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017. Accessed October 4, 2017. http:\/\/ezproxy.shu.edu\/login?url=http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/entry\/columency\/hudson_henry\/0?institutionId=441.<\/p>\n

Lagasse, Paul, and Columbia University. “Iceboating.” The Columbia Encyclopedia.<\/em> 7th<\/sup> ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017. Accessed October 26, 2017. http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/topic\/iceboating?searchId=eef5785a-bb33-11e7-b1e2-0aea1e3b2a47.<\/p>\n

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Potter, Sean. 2010. “January 15, 2009: Miracle on the Hudson.” Weatherwise<\/em> 63 (1): 12-14. Accessed October 26, 2017. eds.b.ebscohost.com\/eds\/pdfviewer\/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=37698dab-6f63-4898-a6f8-feb0766c72c2%40sessionmgr120.<\/p>\n

Stellrecht, Elizabeth. \u201cHudson River.\u201d Salem Press Encyclopedia Of Science <\/em>(January 2017): Research Starters, <\/em>EBSCOhost <\/em>(accessed October 12, 2017).<\/p>\n

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  1. “When the Hudson was Hudson’s.” Forest and Stream; A Journal of Outdoor Life, Travel, Nature Study, Shooting, Fishing, Yachting<\/em> 41 (7). https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/americanperiodicals\/docview\/125071971\/DBE83E4AF5C24711PQ\/19?accountid=13793.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    <\/a>1 <\/sup>Paul Lagasse and Columbia University, The Columbia Encyclopedia, <\/em>7th<\/sup> ed. (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017), s.v. \u201cHudson, Henry,\u201d accessed October 4, 2017, http:\/\/ezproxy.shu.edu\/login?url=http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/entry\/columency\/hudson_henry\/0?institutionId=441; Sara Fieldston, \u201cDutch New Amsterdam\u201d (class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, August 30, 2017); Sara Fieldston, \u201cDutch New Amsterdam\u201d (class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, August 30, 2017).<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> \u201cWhen the Hudson was Hudson\u2019s,\u201d Forest and Stream; A Journal of Outdoor Life, Travel, Nature Study, Shooting, Fishing, Yachting <\/em>41, no. 7 (1893), https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/americanperiodicals\/docview\/125071971\/DBE83E4AF5C24711PQ\/19?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> \u201cThe First Steamboat.: Traveling on the Hudson River in 1808.,\u201d Chicago Daily Tribune<\/em> (Chicago, IL), July 6, 1873, https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/171423187\/519CDEDA19BE48F0PQ\/5?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Richard H. Gassan, \u201cTourists and the City: New York\u2019s First Tourist Era, 1820-1840,\u201d Winterthur Portfolio <\/em>44, no 2\/3 (2010): 223, accessed October 10, 2017, eds.b.ebscohost.com\/eds\/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=83e500b6-6f51-4b14-a387-bb5e5e9e990b%40sessionmgr120.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Ibid; Sara Fieldston, \u201cClinton\u2019s Big Ditch,\u201d (class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, September 18, 2017).<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Pamela Cooper, Encyclopedia of New Jersey, <\/em>ed. Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), s.v. \u201cIceboating,\u201d accessed October 26, 2017, http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/entry\/rutgersnj\/iceboating\/0.; Paul Lagasse and Columbia University, The Columbia Encyclopedia<\/em>, 7th<\/sup> ed. (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017), s.v. \u201cIceboating,\u201d accessed October 26, 2017, http:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/topic\/iceboating?searchId=eef5785a-bb33-11e7-b1e2-0aea1e3b2a47.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Elizabeth Stellrecht, Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science<\/em> (Salem Press, 2017), s.v. \u201cHudson River,\u201d accessed October 12, 2017, eds.b.ebscohost.com\/eds\/detail\/detail?vid=4&sid=71e1b1ff-af86-4cd8-b9eb-4a41fc078eb9%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBIPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxzc28mc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=94981399&db=ers.<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Ibid.; Samantha Gross, \u201ca Push to Give Hudson a Beach: [FINAL Edition],\u201d Washington Post <\/em>(Washington D.C., DC), May 30, 2006, https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/410008993\/9A0E4DFEC231416CPQ\/39?accountid=13793.<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Laurie Johnston, \u201c3 Boys Saved From Icy Hudson Are Accused of Purse Snatching,\u201d New York Times<\/em> (New York, NY), Jan 19, 1981, https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/121519013\/fulltextPDF\/A807585E6632498EPQ\/1?accountid=13793; Sara Fieldston, \u201cCity of Light: Antebellum Reform,\u201d (class lecture, History of New York City, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, 2017).<\/p>\n

    [11]<\/a> Sean Potter, \u201cJanuary 15, 2009: Miracle on the Hudson,\u201d Weatherwise<\/em> 63, no. 1 (2010): 12-14, accessed October 26, 2017, eds.b.ebscohost.com\/eds\/pdfviewer\/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=37698dab-6f63-4898-a6f8-feb0766c72c2%40sessionmgr120.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Robert Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont, 1810. An early example of a steamboat (Image Source: New York Public Library). View of the Hudson River Valley. Travelers on the “Fashionable Tour” often passed through the Hudson River Valley (Image Source: New York Public Library). Salmon. Officials in British colonial New York made an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4058,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[206,236,196,207,208,205],"class_list":["post-1197","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-fashionable-tour","tag-henry-hudson","tag-hudson-river","tag-pollution","tag-rescue","tag-steamboat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4058"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}