In 1776, part of a chain was stretched across the Hudson River to prevent British ships from passing and potentially cutting the colonies in two. With the British having taken New York City at the river's mouth, danger was imminent, and General Washington ordered the river obstructed below Fort Clinton, seventy miles to the north. At this point the Hudson was only eighteen hundred feet wide, about the length of the chain forged in 1775 to protect Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain after its capture by Ethan Allen. The chain was hauled from Vermont in a desperate race against time, and on November 27 the heavy obstruction was swung into place.
