The River That Won the Revolution

The Hudson Valley at War: Why It Mattered

The Hudson is a watershed that begins with a trickle out of the side of Mt Marcy — the highest point in NY — and sees 417 years of history on its 315 mile flow into NY Harbor. First discovered in 1609 by an Englishman, paid by the Dutch to find the Northwest Passage, that fateful first trip shaped not just the Valley, but the United States. Established in 1624 (!!) and controlled by the Dutch West India Company for 40 years as a beaver pelt trading post at Fort Orange, the river between New Amsterdam and Albany was a busy commercial corridor starting in 1624, even before the settlement of New Amsterdam, preceded by Peter Minuit's famous purchase of Manhattan in an indian village in the sheltered river bay amidst the cliffs and rocks of today's Inwood Hill Park.

British rule brought changes to the Valley, but the Dutch presence remained — and is still strong when you know where to look. Soon, aggrieved colonists under British rule in the HV and beyond felt they were getting inferior products (they were) from England while paying sky high taxes (still are). That issue became a thing, and soon it was on. The British ran the colonists out of New York City and Long Island during the opening ceremonies, and confidently established HQ in NYC, while the Colonists chose Philly. This meant that the Hudson Valley was on the front lines. And where exactly that line held, ended up being a decisive factor in the war.

Post war, the success of military engineering brought greater industrial innovation to the Hudson Valley, including the 1st railroad in the country; the Water Level Route ran along the east bank, while steam drove both locomotives and paddle ships up and down a river crowded with sail freight, ferries and fishermen. Industrial titans built their homes as River Gentry, agriculture fed NYC and a recreation boom and bust era spanned generations. Post jet age, the HV is hot again. Here is a series that I enjoyed writing as a place to journal all of the remarkable things I've learned about the Hudson Valley in my 20 years roaming around.

Most European settlements had one thing in common: exclusivity. One religion, one ideology, had to be in the group — and most of them failed. The Dutch never tried any of that. Manhattan in the 1640s was a mixing bowl of races, nationalities and faiths, and nobody cared, because the Dutch West India Company was running a trading post, not a mission. Free market was the priority. It worked. That's why the British wanted it. And the terms of surrender in 1664 were essentially: You can have It, but don't change anything. Britain agreed. The freedom of New York — the prosperity, the tolerance, the commercial energy — didn't disappear under British rule. It became the model. Less central planning, more commerce. Many of the founding fathers spent time In New York before and after the war, and not unsurprisingly, the influence of the light hand of government was apparent in the constitution drafted in Philadelphia in 1787 — and it's no coincidence that the men who shaped it had spent years living, fighting and governing on the banks of the Hudson.