Just over a century ago, more than a thousand cubic yards of the Palisades Cliffs were being blasted away every day for a growing New York, but preservation efforts by New York’s wealthiest families, New Jersey women activists, Governors Theodore Roosevelt and Foster Voorhees, and philanthropists such as George W. Perkins Sr., John D. Rockefeller Sr., J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Laurence Rockefeller, and others helped establish the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in 1900 as one of the first interstate institutions devoted to conserving scenic features. Since then, the Commission has protected wildlife habitat and cultural and recreational resources, managing more than 110,000 acres in 21 public parks and 8 historic sites and serving more than nine million visitors annually. The corridor includes places such as Hook Mountain, where large numbers of migrating raptors are counted, Stony Point Battlefield and Lighthouse, Fort Lee Historic Park, Rockland Lake, High Tor, and the Harriman Group Camps, which expanded outdoor access for children and families. The 42-mile parkway from the George Washington Bridge to Bear Mountain was developed as a limited-access road intended as a drive through a park rather than an expressway, linking conservation, recreation, and transportation, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
