The Hudson America's River

About this book

Offering sea-level access through the Adirondacks, the Hudson River once helped the country's largest and most innovative iron, cotton, and ship manufacturers send their goods to remote locations around the world. The river's untamed landscape cultivated our first homegrown works of art, literature, and design, inspiring poets to populate the Hudson's banks with folklore and fairies and millionaires to build airy castles on its shores. To this day, the Hudson remains a central waterway reflecting the imagination, ambition, and restlessness of the American heart. The journey from the river's source in the mountains to its termination in New York Bay reveals the grand sweep of industry and culture as it has evolved in our country and radiated out into the world.

In this richly illustrated book, Frances F. Dunwell tells the history of the "magical alchemy between a river, its people, and the ideas of the times."Beginning with the age of Dutch exploration and concluding with the environmental cleanup initiatives that set a national precedent for conservation, Dunwell presents a portrait of the river that's as varied as its own landscape. Consulting diaries, maps, books, and letters, she looks at the Hudson through the lenses of the Revolutionary War, the perspective of the Knickerbocker writers and the Hudson River school painters, the "bare-knuckle" era of the robber barons, the industrial age, and the environmental movements launched after the first Earth Day. Dunwell captures the spirit of the Hudson through the voices and lives of those who changed the river and were, in turn, changed by it.

Contents

Foreword, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Prologue: A River of Imagining, People of Daring and Dreams Acknowledgments 1. World's End, World Trade, World River: Henry Hudson's Failed Quest, Adriaen Van der Donck's Utopian Vision, and the Legend of the Storm Ship 2. The River That Unites, the River That Divides: King George and George Washington Vie for the Hudson 3. America's River of Empire: Robert Fulton's Folly, Robert Livingston's Venture Capital, and DeWitt Clinton's Ditch Spark the Rise of New York Port 4. First Stop on the American Tour: Europe Discovers Sylvanus Thayer's West Point, a Catskills Sunrise, and a River That Defines the American Character 5. America's First Artists and Writers: The Sacred River of Thomas Cole and the Mythic River of Washington Irving 6. The Industrialized River: Gouverneur Kemble's Weapon Works, Henry Burden's Iron Foundries, and Colonel Stevens's Engine Factory 7. Going up the River for Health and Fun: New York City Journalist N. P. Willis Survives TB and Discovers an Idle Wild 8. Design with Nature: The Landscape Gardens of A. J. Downing, the Architecture of A. J. Davis, and the Inspiration for Central Park and Riverside Drive 9. Gateway to America, Escape Route to Canada: Immigrants Greet a Beacon of Liberty, John Jervis Creates a New River Route, and a Railroad Goes Underground 10. Millionaires' Row: The River Castles of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and Frederic Church, and the Floating Palaces of Manhattan's West Side 11. A Forest to Protect a Commercial River: Land Surveyor Verplanck Colvin, Photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard, and the New York Board of Trade Campaign to Safeguard the Hudson in the Adirondacks 12. An Interstate Park for the Palisades and the Highlands and a New Progressive Vision: Elizabeth Vermilye's Women's Clubs, Edward and Mary Harriman's Park, Mrs. Olmsted's Fresh Air Camp, and Margaret Sage's Charity 13. Over, Under, Across, and Through: Civil Engineers Triumph Over Nature, Except in New York Harbor 14. Surviving the Depression, Connecting with Nature: FDR's River of Dignity, Robert Moses's Riverside Drive, and John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Parkway 15. Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper, Clearwater, and the Nature Conservancy: Hiker Leo Rothschild, Sportswriter Bob Boyle, and Folksinger Pete Seeger Campaign to Save a Mountain and Revive a "Dead" River Epilogue: A River of Power, and the Power of Passion Notes Bibliography Index Chapter 14. Surviving the Depression, by Connecting with Nature: FDR's River of Dignity Moses's Riverside Drive, by and John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Parkway 15. Scenic Hudson, by Riverkeeper Sportswriter Bob Boyle, by and Folksinger Pete Seeger Campaign to Save a Mountain and Revive a "Dead" River Epilogue: A River of Power, by and the Power of Passion Notes Bibliography Index 05dunwell00_toc.doc: vii

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Biography

Frances F. Dunwell has spent the past thirty years in a number of nonprofit and governmental positions dedicated to conserving the natural and historic heritage of the Hudson River.