Printer-friendlyHudson River Estuary
The Hudson River is the defining natural feature of a major region of New York State, familiar to millions who drive across its bridges, admire its grandeur from parks and historic sites, or commute to work on the Hudson River Line railroad. But familiar as it may be, the Hudson is more than it seems.
Take its name, for example. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for Holland's East India Company, captained a Dutch ship up this river in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. He referred to the river as the "Manhatees." The Dutch officially named it "River of the Prince Mauritius" as they colonized the valley. Hudson's name wasn't applied until 1664, as England tried to legitimize its takeover of the region. The English argued that since the explorer was a subject of England's king, Hudson's river belonged to them, not to the Dutch.
Of course, native tribes had named the river long before Hudson's arrival. One of their names - Muhheakantuck - means "great waters in constant motion" or, more loosely, "river that flows two ways." It highlights the fact that this waterway is more than a river - it is a tidal estuary, an arm of the sea where salty sea water meets fresh water running off the land.
The Hudson estuary stretches 153 miles from Troy to New York Harbor, nearly half the river's 315 mile course between Lake Tear of the Clouds, its source in the Adirondacks, and the Battery at the tip of Manhattan. The estuary feels the ocean's tidal pulse all the way to Troy. Push a stick into the beach at the water's edge, or note the water's height on a piling or rock. Check back in 20 minutes. Is the water level the same? The estuary usually has two high and two low tides in twenty-four hours. With this rising and falling come changes in the direction of flow. Generally speaking, a rising tide is accompanied by a flood current flowing north towards Troy, a falling tide by an ebb current flowing south towards the sea.
Salty sea water also pushes up the estuary, diluted by freshwater runoff as it moves north. In years with average amounts of precipitation falling in typical seasonal patterns, spring runoff holds the leading edge of dilute sea water - the salt front - downriver between the Tappan Zee and Yonkers. As runoff slackens in summer, the salt front pushes northward to Newburgh Bay, and further - to Poughkeepsie - in droughts.
Estuaries are among the most productive of earth's ecosystems. Native Americans discovered the Hudson's bounty thousands of years ago; evidence of their repasts remains in heaps of oyster shells on its shores. Hudson and Dutch traders wrote of a river teeming with striped bass, herring, and giant sturgeon. More than 200 species of fish are found in the Hudson and its tributaries. The estuary's productivity is ecologically and economically valuable to much of the Atlantic Coast; key commercial and recreational species like striped bass, bluefish, and blue crab depend on nursery habitat here. Bald eagles, herons, waterfowl, and other birds feed from the river's bounty. Tidal marshes, mudflats, and other significant habitats in and along the estuary support a great diversity of life, including endangered species like the shortnose sturgeon.
The region's human inhabitants have also flourished thanks to the Hudson estuary. Its course through the Hudson Highlands, the only sea-level breach in the Appalachian Mountain Range, allowed nineteenth century engineers to realize their visions of links between seacoast and heartland. A key leg in the transport of goods between New York Harbor and the Great Lakes via the Erie Canal, the river helped make New York the Empire State. The Hudson eventually became a source of drinking water to cities, process water to industry, fun and games to picnickers and boaters, and soul-stirring inspiration to artists.
However, as population increased, the Hudson's natural resources were abused. Discharges of raw sewage led to high bacteria counts and low oxygen levels. Valuable wetlands were destroyed by landfilling, scenic vistas desecrated by quarrying, millions of fish killed in cooling water intakes, and food webs contaminated by toxic chemicals. Dismayed at such abuse, citizens took action. In the late nineteenth century, New York and New Jersey residents combined to mount a preservation effort that saved the Palisades cliffs. In the 1960s the battle to save Storm King Mountain in the Highlands helped found today's national environmental movement. New York voters passed a bond act for sewage cleanup in 1965; the federal Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972. These measures significantly improved water quality in the Hudson estuary. The Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve and other preserves were established to protect critical wetland habitat.
Today the Hudson River is one of the healthiest estuaries on the Atlantic Coast. Its rich history and striking environmental recovery have made it one of the nation's fourteen American Heritage Rivers. Many citizen groups and government agencies work actively to restore and protect the estuary's natural resources.
More about Hudson River Estuary:
- The Atlantic Sturgeon: The Logo Of The Hudson River Estuary - The Hudson River Estuary logo depicts an Atlantic sturgeon, the Hudson's largest fish.
