Foundry Dock Park

After the War of 1812, President James Madison designated Cold Spring as one of four sites for a national armory, and within five years the West Point Foundry was operating there. Cold Spring was chosen for its strategic Hudson River location, nearby iron ore, hardwood for charcoal, sand for casting, water power from rushing streams, and the presence of the United States Military Academy across the river. The foundry became an early company town with worker housing, a school, and a chapel. In 1848, construction of the New York Central Railroad cut off access to a dock farther southeast, making this waterfront the foundry’s busy industrial wharf and main shipping dock. The Long Dock extended 600 feet to the river’s main channel so deep-draft steamships could load and unload, and a rail spur linked it to the foundry, with oxen pulling railcars in the early years and a manual switch controlling access across the main rail line. Iron ore, scrap iron, coal, wood, and other materials arrived here, while cannons, shells, shot, engines, tunnel and aqueduct pipes, and other products were shipped out. Operating from 1818 to 1911, the West Point Foundry was one of the country’s largest and most modern ironworks, employing up to 1,000 workers at its peak to make steam engines, water wheels, mill machinery, heavy equipment, major water-supply pipes for New York City, and arms for the U.S. government, including the innovative Parrott gun developed by superintendent Robert Parrott, a rifled cannon that helped turn the tide of the Civil War.

Cold Spring, New York · United States