Hudson

Hudson, towns, United States

Hudson.

1 Industrial town (1990 pop. 17,233), Middlesex co., E central Mass., on the Assabet River, in an apple-growing region; settled c.1699, inc. 1866. Manufactures include communications equipment, locks, chemicals, plastics, electronic and metal products, and semiconductors.

2 City (1990 pop. 19,530), Hillsborough co., S N.H., on the Merrimack River opposite Nashua; est. 1673 as part of Dunstable, Mass., included in New Hampshire as Nottingham West in 1746; name changed to Hudson in 1830. There are various industries, such as apparel and textiles, sheet-metal fabrication, and printing; however, the city's growth mainly is due to the establishment of high-technology computer industries and added housing developments in the area.

3 City (1990 pop. 8,034), seat of Columbia co., SE N.Y. on the Hudson River; settled c.1622 by the Dutch and later in 1783 by English whalers; inc. 1785. The city was a whaling and trading port until 1812. Its industries included textiles, furniture, cement, and metal products, but these are now largely gone; Hudson has become an antiques center. Many colonial and Revolutionary era homes are in the area.

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Hudson, river, United States

Hudson, river, c.315 mi (510 km) long, rising in Lake Tear of the Clouds, on Mt. Marcy in the Adirondack Mts., NE N.Y., and flowing generally S to Upper New York Bay at New York City; the Mohawk River is its chief tributary. The Hudson is navigable by ocean vessels to Albany and by smaller vessels to Troy; leisure boats and self-propelled barges use the canalized section between Troy and Fort Edward, the head of navigation. Divisions of the New York State Canal System connect the Hudson with the Great Lakes and with Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River.

The Hudson is tidal to Troy (c.150 mi/240 km upstream); this section is considered to be an estuary. The upper course of the river has many waterfalls and rapids. The middle course, between Albany and Newburgh, is noted for the Catskill and Shawangunk mts. on the west and by the large estates (the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park is the most famous) on the east bank. From Newburgh to Peekskill the river crosses the mountainous and forested Hudson Highlands in a deep, scenic gorge. The United States Military Academy at West Point overlooks the river there, and Bear Mt. Bridge spans this section. Near Tarrytown the river widens to form Tappan Zee, which is crossed by the Tappan Zee Bridge; from there to its mouth the Hudson is flanked on the west by the sheer cliffs of the Palisades. At the mouth are the ports of New York and New Jersey. The Hudson forms part of the New York–New Jersey border, and the two states are linked by the George Washington Bridge, the Holland and Lincoln vehicular tunnels, and railway tubes.

First sighted by Verrazano in 1524, the river was explored by Henry Hudson in 1609. It was a major route for Native Americans and later for the Dutch and English traders and settlers. During the American Revolution both sides fought for control of the Hudson; many battles were fought along its banks. In 1825 the Erie Canal (now part of the state canal system) linked the river with the Great Lakes, providing the first all-water trans-Appalachian route. Many industries are located on the Hudson's banks, and pollution by raw sewage and industrial wastes became a serious problem in the 1900s; antipollution legislation passed in 1965 has sought to protect the river from further contamination. Although pollution continued throughout the 1970s and 80s, the state and municipal governments in addition to environmental groups have contributed a significant clean-up effort, complete with antipollution regulation. The Hudson is featured in the legend of Rip Van Winkle and other stories of Washington Irving.

Bibliography

See R. Van Zandt, comp., Chronicles of the Hudson (1971); A. R. Talbot, Power along the Hudson (1972); A. G. Adams, The Hudson Through the Years (1983).

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Hudson

1. Henry. died 1611, English navigator: he explored the Hudson River (1609) and Hudson Bay (1610), where his crew mutinied and cast him adrift to die

2. W(illiam) H(enry). 1841--1922, British naturalist and novelist, born in Argentina, noted esp for his romance Green Mansions (1904) and the autobiographical Far Away and Long Ago (1918)

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Hudson 

a river in the eastern USA. Length, 520 km; basin area, 34,600 sq km. It originates in the glacial lakes of the Adirondack (Appalachian) Mountains. In the upper reaches there are rapids and waterfalls, and over the rest of its length (about 170 km) the Hudson flows in a deep glacial trough. From the town of Troy the Hudson Valley is an estuary with a depth of 3.5 m (in the upper part) to 14 m (in the broadened mouth, called Upper Bay). Through the Narrows, a strait, the Hudson discharges into Lower Bay and then into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hudson has an underwater valley (the so-called Hudson Canyon), which stretches 200–250 km at the depth of the ocean.

The Hudson is fed by snow and rain. High water occurs in spring, with the maximums in March and April. The river’s average discharge of water is regulated by dams. The average discharge of water at the city of Mechanicville (middle reaches; 11,650 sq km) is 210 cu m per second; the maximum is 3,500 cu m per second. Maritime tides (up to 1 m high) extend 240 km from the mouth (to the dam at Troy, from which point navigation begins). The upper reaches of the Hudson lie close to the basin of the St. Lawrence River, with which the Hudson is connected by a canal; the Champlain River; Lake Champlain; and the Richelieu River. The Hudson is an important link in the water system of the New York State Barge Canal, with which it is connected by a canalized right tributary-the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal. There are large hydroelectric power plants in the Hudson Basin (Sherman Island, Spier Falls, and others).

In the mouth of the Hudson is New York, the major city and port; other cities are Troy, Albany, Hudson, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Yonkers. The Hudson was named for H. Hudson, who discovered the mouth of the river in 1609.

A. P. MURANOV