River That Flows Both Ways

Native Americans called the Hudson Muhheakantuck, meaning “river that flows both ways,” because ocean tides push upriver to the Troy dam and reverse the river’s current four times each day. A stick dropped in at Troy would drift back and forth for several months before reaching the Atlantic. The Hudson is an estuary where seawater from the ocean mingles with fresh water from the upper river and its tributaries, and in summer a trace of salt can be tasted at Newburgh, 60 miles north of New York City. Estuaries are among the earth’s most productive ecosystems, and the Hudson supports 200 kinds of fish as well as bald eagles, ducks, and herons. Although sewage discharges and wetland destruction once threatened this abundance of life, anti-pollution and habitat protection measures improved conditions, and today the Hudson is presented as the healthiest estuary on the Atlantic Coast. The river runs 315 miles from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks to the Upper Bay of New York Harbor, with its estuary extending 153 miles from Troy to the Bay and another seven miles to the Narrows and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Its width ranges from about 500 feet at Troy to three and a half miles at Haverstraw, and according to a 1934 survey it reaches its greatest depth at West Point at 216 feet, while high tide stands three to five feet above low tide.

Poughkeepsie, New York · United States