HUDSON RIVER TUNNELS 



2861 



HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 



it is not this pouring in of tributary waters that 

 makes the lower Hudson such a deep, wide 

 stream. In fact, from Troy downward to its 

 mouth it is less a river than a drowned valley 

 or fiord, up which the tidal flow finds its way. 

 This estuary is of sufficient size to permit the 

 largest vessels to ascend to Albany, 144 miles 

 from the mouth, while smaller boats easily 

 reach Troy, six miles farther. Traffic on the 

 river is enormous, but all the vessels on its 

 waters are by no means commercially em- 

 ployed, for few regions in the country are more 

 visited by tourists than the Hudson, and luxu- 

 rious steamers have been built to accommo- 

 date them. At its mouth, along the western 

 shore, across from Manhattan Island, are the 

 docks of the leading trans-Atlantic passenger 

 steamers. 



Discovered by Verrazano in 1524, the river 

 was first explored in 1609 by Henry Hudson, 

 for whom it was named (see HUDSON, HENRY). 

 Its excellent harbor determined the site of 

 New York, and its shores saw some of the im- 

 portant conflicts of the Revolution. On its 

 waters Robert Fulton launched the first success- 

 ful steamboat, and along its valley one of the 

 earliest railways on the continent was built. 

 To-day great railroads run parallel with it 

 through much of its course, and aid in carry- 

 ing the vast quantity of merchandise which the 

 regions to the west and north send to New 

 York. The valley of the Hudson is one of the 

 most thickly-settled parts of the country, for 

 along it are to be found many thriving cities 

 and villages Glens Falls, Cohoes, Troy, Albany, 

 Hudson, Catskill, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, 

 Newburgh, Westpoint, Peekskill, Haverstraw, 

 Ossining, Nyack, Tarrytown, Yonkers and 

 others. T.E.F. 



HUDSON RIVER TUNNELS. At the com- 

 mencement of the twentieth century Manhat- 

 tan Island, now the business heart of New York 

 City, was almost as completely isolated from 

 the surrounding mainland as when the Dutch 

 bought it from the Indians nearly three hun- 

 dred years earlier. There were bridges across 

 the narrow Harlem River at the north, and the 

 great Brooklyn Bridge to Long Island on the 

 east, but to reach the New Jersey shore on the 

 west it was necessary to cross a mile of water 

 by boat. Thousands of people whose daily 

 work was in New York and the hundreds of 

 thousands who came to the city each year from 

 the south and west were dependent on ferry 

 boats for their passage over the river. On foggy 

 days and in the winter, when floating ice-cakes 



obstructed the passage, there were many de- 

 lays, and most people preferred homes ten or 

 fifteen miles north or east to those a shorter 

 distance away in New Jersey. 



In 1874 an unsuccessful attempt was made to 

 tunnel under the river. Even the much shorter 

 East River had no passage beneath it but a 

 gas tunnel ten feet in diameter, completed in 

 1894. But in 1902 a young lawyer, who had 

 come from Tennessee only ten years before, 

 became president of the Hudson & Manhat- 

 tan Railroad Company, a company which ac- 

 quired the rights to the abandoned tunnel. 

 t Through the activity of this young man, Wil- 

 liam G. McAdoo, $70,000,000 were obtained for 

 a renewal of the undertaking.' Franchises were 

 secured in both New York and New Jersey, and 

 two pairs of tunnels were driven under the 

 Hudson River, about a mile apart. The finan- 

 cial ability which Mr. McAdoo displayed led 

 later to his appointment as Secretary of the 

 Treasury under President Wilson. 



There are now three pairs of tunnels to 

 New Jersey, and besides the gas tunnel there 

 are seven sets of tunnels, either in operation 

 or under construction (in 1916), to Long Island, 

 some double and some single. The first of the 

 McAdoo tunnels was completed in 1904, and the 

 first pair was put in operation in 1908. It con- 

 nects Jersey City with Morton Street, Man- 

 hattan, and is over a mile long. The inside 

 diameter of each of its tubes is fifteen feet 

 three inches. From the New York end a sub- 

 way runs north to the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 station and at the New Jersey end it is con- 

 nected with the southern pair, which runs from 

 Cortland, Church and Fulton streets in New 

 York, and is slightly longer. From the junc- 

 tion of the two tunnels a line of the company, 

 partly a subway and partly above ground, ex- 

 tends about ten miles west into Newark. 



The Pennsylvania Railroad owns the other 

 tunnels under the Hudson River. They were 

 completed in 1910 and continue on under the 

 East River to Long Island. Their diameter 

 is twenty-one feet two inches. Some of the 

 other tunnels under the East River are a part 

 of the New York subway system. T.E.F. 



HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. Commercially 

 stated, this was a joint-stock association for 

 trading in British North America; in reality, 

 it played a very large part in the romance and 

 adventure of early days in that vast region. 

 The gloomy woods and the streams and lakes, 

 with their infinite variety of fur-bearing ani- 

 mals; the Indian guides and fur-hunters; the 



