Hudson River
The Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River as seen from Bear Mountain.
Country	United States
States	New York, New Jersey
Tributaries
- left	Opalescent River, Boreas River, Moses Kill River, Batten Kill, Hoosic River
- right	Goodnow River, Cedar River (New York), Indian River (New York), Sacandaga River, Snook Kill River, Mohawk River, Normans Kill, Vloman Kill, Coeymans Creek, Hannacroix Creek, Coxsackie Creek
Cities	In New York State: Queensbury, Glens Falls, Mechanicville, Troy, Albany, Hudson, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Beacon, Peekskill, Nyack, South Nyack, Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Yonkers, and New York City, and in New Jersey: Alpine, Tenafly, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Edgewater, North Bergen, Guttenberg, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City.
Source	Lake Tear of the Clouds
- location	Mount Marcy, New York, United States
- elevation	4,293 ft (1,309 m)
- coordinates	44°06′24″N 73°56′09″W / 44.10667°N 73.93583°W / 44.10667; -73.93583
Mouth	Upper New York Bay
- elevation	0 ft (0 m)
- coordinates	40°42′11″N 74°01′34″W / 40.70306°N 74.02611°W / 40.70306; -74.02611
Length	315 mi (507 km)
Basin	14,000 sq mi (36,260 km2)
Discharge	for Lower New York Bay, max and min at Green Island
- average	21,400 cu ft/s (606 m3/s)
- max	215,000 cu ft/s (6,088 m3/s)
- min	882 cu ft/s (25 m3/s)
Discharge elsewhere (average)
- Troy	15,000 cu ft/s (425 m3/s)
Hudson and Mohawk watersheds

Hudson River estuary waterways around New York City: 1. Hudson River, 2. East River, 3. Long Island Sound, 4. Newark Bay, 5. Upper New York Bay, 6. Lower New York Bay, separated from Upper New York Bay by the Verrazano Narrows strait, 7. Jamaica Bay, and 8. Atlantic Ocean.

The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) watercourse that flows from north to south through eastern New York State in the United States. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York. The river flows southward past the state capital at Albany and then eventually forms the boundary between New York City and the U.S. state of New Jersey at its mouth before emptying into Upper New York Bay. Its lower half is a tidal estuary,^[1] which occupies the Hudson Fjord. This formed during the most recent North American glaciation over the latter part of the Wisconsin Stage of the Last Glacial Maximum, 26,000 to 13,300 years ago.^[2] Tidal waters influence the Hudson's flow as far north as Troy, New York.

The river is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609. It had previously been observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano sailing for King Francis I of France in 1524, as he became the first European known to have entered the Upper Bay, but he considered the river to be an estuary. The Dutch called the river the "North River" – with the Delaware River called the "South River" – and it formed the spine of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Settlement of the colony clustered around the Hudson, and its strategic importance as the gateway to the American interior led to years of competition between the English and the Dutch over control of the river and colony.

During the eighteenth century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the nineteenth century, the area inspired the Hudson River School of landscape painting, an American pastoral style, as well as the concepts of environmental conservation and wilderness.

Names[link]

The river was called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan, by the Iroquois,^[3][4][5] and it was known as Muhheakantuck ("river that flows two ways") by the Lenape tribe who inhabited both banks of the lower portion of the river - all of present day New Jersey and the island of Manhattan.

An early name for the Hudson used by the Dutch was "Rio de Montaigne". Later, they generally termed it the "North River", the Delaware River being known as the "South River." The name "North River" was used in the New York City area up until the early 1900s, with limited use continuing until modern times.^[6] The term persists in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee.^[7]

Geography[link]

The official source of the Hudson is Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains. However, the waterway from the lake is known as Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River, feeding into the Hudson at Tahawus. The actual Hudson River begins several miles north of Tahawus at Henderson Lake. The Hudson is joined at Waterford (north of Albany) by the Mohawk River, its major tributary, just south of which the Federal Dam separates the Upper Hudson River Valley from the Lower Hudson River Valley or simply the Hudson River Valley. The Hudson river then flows south, passing between the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Mountains, widening significantly at the Tappan Zee, finally flowing between Manhattan Island and the New Jersey Palisades and into the Atlantic Ocean at New York Bay, an arm of the ocean, where it forms New York Harbor.

View of the Hudson during the 1880s showing Jersey City.

The lower Hudson is actually a tidal estuary, with tidal influence extending as far as the Federal Dam at Troy.^[1] Strong tides make parts of New York Harbor difficult and dangerous to navigate. During the winter, ice floes drift south or north, depending upon the tides. The Mahican name of the river represents its partially estuarine nature: muh-he-kun-ne-tuk means "the river that flows both ways."^[8] The Hudson is often mistaken for one of the largest rivers in the United States, but it is an estuary throughout most of its length below Troy and thus only a small fraction of fresh water, about 15,000 cubic feet (425 m³) per second, is present. The mean fresh water discharge at the river's mouth in New York is approximately 21,400 cubic feet (606 m³) per second. The Hudson and its tributaries, notably the Mohawk River, drain a large area. Parts of the Hudson River form coves, such as Weehawken Cove in Hoboken and Weehawken.

The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a drowned river. The rising sea levels after the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age, have resulted in a marine incursion that drowned the coastal plain and brought salt water well above the mouth of the river. The deeply eroded old riverbed beyond the current shoreline, Hudson Canyon, is a rich fishing area. The former riverbed is clearly delineated beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, extending to the edge of the continental shelf.

Looking downriver from Battery Park City in Manhattan.

Hudson from Midtown Manhattan with Javits Convention Center in foreground. The New Jersey Palisades is visible across the river.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal ended at the Hudson at Kingston, running southwest to the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Notable landmarks on the Hudson include West Point, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Bard College, the Culinary Institute of America, Marist College, the Thayer Hotel at West Point, Bannerman's Castle, Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (formerly part of the New York Central Railroad system), the Tappan Zee, the New Jersey Palisades, Hudson River Islands State Park, Hudson Highlands State Park,Walkway over the Hudson, Sing Sing Correctional Facility, New York Military Academy, Fort Tryon Park with The Cloisters, Liberty State Park, and Stevens Institute of Technology. Cities and towns on the New Jersey side include Alpine, Tenafly, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Edgewater, North Bergen, Guttenberg, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City. Cities in New York State include Troy, Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Glens Falls, Yonkers, Newburgh Beacon and New York City.

The natural beauty of the Hudson Valley earned the Hudson River the nickname "America's Rhine", being compared to that of the famous 40 mile (65 km) stretch of Germany's Rhine River valley between the cities of Bingen and Koblenz. A similar 30-mile (48 km) stretch on the east bank of the Hudson has been designated the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The Hudson was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997.

The Narrows[link]

The Narrows, a tidal stream between the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, connects the upper and lower sections of New York Bay. It has long been considered the maritime "gateway" to New York City and historically has been the most important entrance into the harbor.

The Narrows were most likely formed about 6,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Previously, Staten Island and Long Island were connected, preventing the Hudson River from terminating via The Narrows. At that time, the Hudson River emptied into the Atlantic Ocean through a more westerly course through parts of present day northern New Jersey, along the eastern side of the Watchung Mountains to Bound Brook, New Jersey and then on into the Atlantic Ocean via Raritan Bay. A build up of water in the Upper Bay eventually allowed the Hudson River to break through previous land mass that was connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn to form The Narrows as it exists today. This allowed the Hudson River to find a shorter route to the Atlantic Ocean via its present course between New Jersey and New York City (Waldman, 2000).

North River[link]

Lower Hudson River as seen from Riverside Park in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

North River is an alternate name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson, usually referring to all or part of the waterway located between Manhattan and Hudson County.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} The colonial name given by the Dutch to the entire river in the early seventeenth century, the term fell out of popular use for most of it some time in the early 1900s,^[6] but continues in use locally by mariners and others^[14][15][16] as well as on some nautical charts^[17] and maps. The term also lives on in the names of a variety of facilities such as the North River piers, North River Tunnels, and the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant, and has strong historical ties with New York Harbor.

Haverstraw Bay[link]

Haverstraw Bay, just north of the Tappan Zee (the widest part of the river), is located between Croton Point in the Southeast and the town of Haverstraw in the Northwest. Haverstraw Bay is a popular destination for recreational boaters and is home to many yacht clubs and marinas, including Croton Yacht Club, Croton Sailing School, Half Moon Bay Marina (Croton), Pennybridge Marina, Minisceongo Yacht Club, Stony Point Bay Marina, and Haverstraw Marina, and is traversed by NY Waterway's Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry.

Transportation[link]

The George Washington Bridge, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey across the Hudson River to New York City, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.^[18]

The Poughkeepsie Bridge was the world's longest bridge when it opened for rail traffic in 1889.^[19] In 2009, it became the world's longest pedestrian bridge and a New York State Historic Park, Walkway Over The Hudson.^[20]

The Tappan Zee Bridge connects Tarrytown, Westchester County and South Nyack, Rockland County in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York State.

Looking downriver from the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises boat. George Washington Bridge can be seen in the background.

The Hudson River is navigable for a great distance above mile 0 (at 40°42.1'N., 74°01.5'W.) off The Battery. The original Erie Canal, opened in 1825 to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie, emptied into the Hudson at the Albany Basin, just three miles (5 km) south of the Federal Dam in Troy (at mile 134). The canal enabled shipping between cities on the Great Lakes and Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. The New York State Canal System, the successor to the Erie Canal, runs into the Hudson River north of Troy and uses the Federal Dam as the Lock 1 and natural waterways whenever possible. The first railroad in New York, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, opened in 1831 between Albany and Schenectady on the Mohawk River, enabling passengers to bypass the slowest part of the Erie Canal.

In northern Troy, the Champlain Canal split from the Erie Canal and continued north along the west side of the Hudson to Thomson, where it crossed to the east side. At Fort Edward the canal left the Hudson, heading northeast to Lake Champlain. A barge canal now splits from the Hudson at that point, taking roughly the same route (also parallel to the Delaware and Hudson Railway's Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad) to Lake Champlain at Whitehall. From Lake Champlain, boats can continue north into Canada to the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The Hudson Valley also proved attractive for railroads, once technology progressed to the point where it was feasible to construct the required bridges over tributaries. The Troy and Greenbush Railroad was chartered in 1845 and opened that same year, running a short distance on the east side between Troy and Greenbush^{[disambiguation needed ]} (east of Albany). The Hudson River Railroad was chartered the next year as a continuation of the Troy and Greenbush south to New York City, and was completed in 1851. In 1866 the Hudson River Bridge opened over the river between Greenbush and Albany, enabling through traffic between the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central Railroad west to Buffalo. When the Poughkeepsie Rail Bridge opened in 1889, it became the longest single span bridge in the world. On October 3, 2009, it re-opened as a pedestrian walkway over the Hudson, as part of the Hudson River Quadricentennial Celebrations and connects over 25 miles of existing pedestrian trails.^[21][22]

The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway began at Weehawken Terminal and ran up the west shore of the Hudson as a competitor to the merged New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Construction was slow, and was finally completed in 1884; the New York Central purchased the line the next year.

A sailboat on the Hudson River, with Lower Manhattan in the background.

The Hudson is crossed at numerous points by bridges, tunnels, and ferries. The width of the Lower Hudson River required major feats of engineering to cross, the results today visible in the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, and the Tappan Zee Bridge, as well as the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the PATH and Pennsylvania Railroad tubes. The George Washington Bridge (signed as I-95/US 1-9/US 46), connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.^[23] The Troy-Waterford Bridge at Waterford was the first bridge over the Hudson, opened in 1809. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered in 1832 and opened in 1835, including the Green Island Bridge, the first bridge over the Hudson south of the Federal Dam.^[24]

The Upper Hudson River Valley was also useful for railroads. Sections of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, Troy and Boston Railroad and Albany Northern Railroad ran next to the Hudson between Troy and Mechanicville. North of Mechanicville the shore was bare until Glens Falls, where the short Glens Falls Railroad ran along the east shore. At Glens Falls the Hudson turns west to Corinth before continuing north; at Corinth the Adirondack Railway begins to run along the Hudson's west bank. The original Adirondack Railway opened by 1871, ending at North Creek along the river. In World War II an extension opened to Tahawus, the site of valuable iron and titanium mines. The extension continued along the Hudson River into Hamilton County, and then continued north where the Hudson makes a turn to the west, crossing the Hudson and running along the west shore of the Boreas River. South of Tahawus the route returned to the east shore of the Hudson the rest of the way to its terminus.

NASA image of the lower Hudson.

Political boundaries[link]

The Hudson River serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York, and further north between New York counties. The northernmost place with this convention is in southwestern Essex County.

Tributaries[link]

See Rivers of the Hudson River Basin for an alphabetical listing including tributaries of tributaries.

View of the Catskills from Rhinecliff.

The Hudson near Newcomb, New York, a dozen miles south of its source.

Lake Tear of the Clouds, by Seneca Ray Stoddard (late 19th century).

From north to south, moving downriver

• Opalescent Brook
• Cedar River
• Indian River
• Boreas River^[25]
• Schroon River
• Sacandaga River
• Mill Creek
• Batten Kill
• Hoosic River
• Mohawk River
• Poesten Kill^[26]
• Patroon Creek
• Normans Kill^[27]
• Moordener Kill
• Coeymans Creek
• Catskill Creek^[28] whose name was applied to the Catskill Mountains
• Roeliff-Jansen Kill^[29]
• Esopus Creek
• Rondout Creek
• Crum Elbow Creek^[30]
• Wappinger Creek
• Casperkill
• Quassaick Creek
• Fishkill Creek
• Moodna Creek
• Croton River
• Sing Sing Kill
• Pocantico River^[31] which flows through Rockefeller State Park Preserve
• Sparkill Creek^[32]
• Wicker's Creek
• Saw Mill River