On-Hudson.com

Flight Of The Mechanical Bird 100 Years Ago Today

http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/100-years-ago/84521/mr-wright039s-mechanical-bird

Mr Wright's mechanical bird

Fri, 4 Dec 2009

100 Years Ago

Puketeraki from Karitane Peninsula, showing Puketeraki beach at left and the Waikouaiti River and beach to the right. - Otago Witness, 1.12.1909.

Wilbur Wright broke another world's record on Saturday last when he drove his aeroplane over the new Government military course at College Park, Maryland, at the unprecedented rate of 46 miles an hour.

At times he even exceeded this speed.

At the beginning of the week Mr Wright made an even more spectacular flight as part of the ceremonies in this city incident to the Hudson to Fulton celebration.

He drove his mechanical bird from Governor's Island in the upper bay up the Hudson River to Grant's Tomb and back again, a distance of about 21 miles.

The trip was accomplished, with a 15-mile-an-hour breeze, in 33 minutes.

It was a remarkable flight from the fact that it was the first time that any aviator had attempted to drive a flying machine within the confines of a large city, where the towers and high buildings make unexpected and vexatious air-currents and counter-currents.

Mr Wright avoided these as far as possible by making his course over the centre of the river.

He also gave millions of spectators an opportunity to witness his flight.

Every window, every housetop was crowded; thousands went flying down the streets to the river-front when the guns from the fort on Governor's Island announced the start.

It was immensely successful from every point of view.

Fort Montgomery Historic Site Presents "Thursday Night Lecture Series" ThursDay December 3rd 2009

Battlefield's Visitor Center   Palisades Interstate Park Commission Fort Montgomery State Historic Site Thursday Night Lecture Series The 2nd New York, Richard Montgomery and the Assault on Quebec  Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 7 PM Come to the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site on December 3rd at 7 PM to learn about what happened to the 2nd New York, Richard Montgomery and the Assault on Quebec in 1775. Hear Philip D. Weaver speak on this important event in American history.  This FREE lecture is sponsored by the Fort Montgomery Battle Site Association. The Fort Montgomery Visitor Center is located at 690 Route 9W,1/4 mile north of the Bear Mountain Traffic Circle in Fort Montgomery, NY 10922. For more information, please call (845) 446-2134. John Trumbull, Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec

Revolutionary War Beacons 21st Century Style Wednesday November 25th 2009

Beacon re-enactmment, 2007.

The Palisades Parks Conservancy

in partnership with

The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Scenic Hudson, New Jersey's Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area, Palisades Interstate Park Commission
and the NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation

present:

Revolutionary War Beacons 21st Century Style 

Wednesday November 25th, 2009
6 - 9 PM

On November 25, 1783, the British evacuated the United States from New York City following the eight-year Revolutionary War. On November 25, 2009, led by the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College, the Palisades Park Conservancy, Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Scenic Hudson, Boscobel Restoration, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation, the United States Military Academy, and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission will join New Jersey's Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area to celebrate the 226th anniversary of Evacuation Day by lighting five beacons in the Hudson Highlands. These beacons will also commemorate the centennial of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission's dedication and the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. 

During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington utilized visual signals as a means of communication. The beacons were typically wooden towers filled with hay and dried grass 18 to 20 feet high. Upon notice of invading British troops, American soldiers would ignite the beacons, located on hill tops, in conjunction with a firing of a cannon and in daytime, the waving of a red and white flag as a warning notice to their fellow troops. 

Today, the beacons will be represented by Xenon TrackSpots. These four-bulb searchlights will be programmed to light up the skies from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Twelve searchlights for this commemoration will stretch for 108 miles between Beacon, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey, with five located in the former and seven in the latter state. The beacon projects in both 2008 and 2009 relied on the expertise and coordination of Emmy Award-winning lighting designer Deke Hazirjian, Josh Wachsman, Kris Seiz and Deke's company, New York City Lites. 

In New York, the ceremonial lightings will be at Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, Cornwall-on-Hudson Landing, Boscobel Restoration, Constitution Island, and Mount Beacon. The lighting will start at Fort Montgomery at 6 pm, with the other beacons to be lit in succession at five-minute intervals in the above order. Celebrate the history associated with 2009 by observing any of the beacon sites this Wednesday, November 25, as you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving. 

New York and New Jersey are celebrating their 2nd annual collaborative event this year. Last year signified the 225th anniversary of the British evacuation, and the same New York organizations teamed up with the Crossroads of the American Revolution Association to put on a first-ever beacon event. Patterned after New York's Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area founded in 1996, New Jersey's Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area was established by Congress in 2006 to recognize, preserve, and interpret the nationally significant historical, cultural, and natural resources in the state. New Jersey's heritage area stretches from the heights of the Palisades at Fort Lee in Bergen County to the shores of the Delaware in Gloucester County. Extending from Albany to the northern border of New York City, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area encompasses over four million acres. The region is home to 2.5 million residents, five National Historic Sites, 58 National Historic Landmarks, 89 historic districts, and over 1,000 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2009 is a year for much celebration as the Palisades Interstate Park Commission is remembering the100th anniversary of the dedication of its Palisades Interstate Park. The Commission held several commemorative events at the Palisades Interstate Park this past September. A final re-dedication will take place on Saturday, December 5th from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. during the annual Bear Mountain State Park holiday festival . At 6 p.m. a spectacular fireworks display will highlight the milestone.

The beacon event is also part of the New York's Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial series. 2009 marks the dual 400th anniversaries of the voyage of English Captain Henry Hudson, who led (for the Dutch) the first European expedition to sail up the river that now bears his name, and Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, the first European to gaze upon the waters of the namesake lake. To celebrate these simultaneous quadricentennials – as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton's maiden journey up the Hudson River on the first successful steamboat, the North River – New York State and its many communities have been hosting a year-long series of events. The beacons will mark Hudson's and Fulton's passages through the Hudson Highlands. For more information on the celebration of New York's 400 years of history, look for the Hudson River Valley Institute's commemorative Quadricentennial edition of the Hudson River Valley Review. In September, the Institute hosted the "New York's 400 Years, a Quadricentennial Conference" and broadcasted it over the Web. To learn more on how to secure a copy of the Review, call (845) 575- 3052 or visit www.hudsonrivervalley.org/review/. To view sessions of the Quad conference on the Web visit www.hudsonrivervalley.org and click on the conference webcast icon. 

The Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College is the academic arm of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. Its mission is to study and to promote the Hudson River Valley and to provide educational resources for heritage tourists, scholars, elementary school educators, environmental organizations, the business community, and the general public. For more information visit www.hudsonrivervalley.org. 

Crossroads of the American Revolution Association was founded in 2002 as the only state-wide non-profit organization established to offer a forum for new citizen initiatives on education, historical interpretation, site use and heritage tourism; and to raise popular appreciation of the historical significance of the American Revolution in New Jersey.

Fort Montgomery Historic Site Presents "Lost Towns Of The Hudson River Valley" ThursDay November 19th

Lost Towns of the Hudson River Valley

Fort Montgomery State Historic Site

Thursday Night Lecture Series

Lost Towns of the Hudson River Valley 

Thursday, November 19, 2009
7 PM


In this slide show presentation, authors Barbara and Wes Gottlock will revive the spirits of these bygone communities and celebrate a lost way of life, telling the story of five towns on the banks of the Hudson River that met their demise as quickly as they were established. From the icehouses of Rockland Lake to the barracks of Camp Shanks, only traces of these once vibrant settlements can now be found. 

FREE lecture starts at 7 PM with book signing to follow.

For more information, please telephone: 845-446-2134

The Fort Montgomery Visitor Center is located at 690 Route 9W,1/4 mile north of the Bear Mountain Traffic Circle in Fort Montgomery, NY 10922.

U.S.S. New York Recycled World Trade Center WarShip Makes Maiden Voyage To City

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/nyregion/30ship.html

Petty Officer Second Class John P. Curtis/United States Navy, via Associated Press

The U.S.S. New York earlier this month.

A Voyage Bearing a Memory

A. G. SULZBERGER

NORFOLK, Va. — With a barely noticeable tug, the U.S.S. New York pulled out of its berth here Thursday morning, beginning a four-day journey to New York City, where it will be formally welcomed into the Navy fleet.

As a tugboat pulled the ship backward past the huge vessels in the Navy docks, the length of steel lining the front edge of the bow, which was recycled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, trailed in a soft wake.

Before long, the ship had swung around under its own motor, and that length of steel sliced through the Atlantic swells below an excited crew, who snapped photos with digital cameras and cellphones.

The New York has been deliberately imbued with symbolism. The crest features an image of the twin towers behind a rising phoenix and the words “Never Forget.” And “the sacred steel in the bow of the ship,” said Cmdr. Curt Jones, is a point of pride among the crew members.

“To me it means that no matter how many times you attack us, we always come back,” said Christopher Davidson, 22, a master-at-arms seaman apprentice in the Navy Reserve from the Soundview section of the Bronx.

But the New York is also a warship. It is roughly the length of two football fields, and it gleams with fresh paint and sophisticated technology. Called an “amphibious transport dock,” it is the fifth in a new line of San Antonio-class vessels, distinguished by two hexagonal structures that make it harder to spot the ship on radar and that some have likened to the twin towers.

The ship was named after New York in response to a request from Gov. George E. Pataki. It is the latest in a string of warships bearing that name, dating to the Revolutionary War. Two sister ships are planned to honor victims who died on Sept. 11 in the attack on the Pentagon and in the crash of the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.

After the New York is commissioned in a ceremony on Nov. 7, its main function will be to transport Marines around the globe. The ship is traveling south to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to pick up military equipment and additional Marines on Friday, before making the three-day journey to New York.

Currently, 186 Marines are on board, in addition to 359 Navy crew members and 60 reservists.

The group includes many New Yorkers who volunteered for the assignment and many making their first voyage on a Navy vessel. The atmosphere on board was earnest, almost celebratory, in part from the prospect of discovery that comes with a maiden voyage, and in part from the anticipation of a stylish homecoming.

Among those on board are a police officer from Westchester County who spent the days after the Sept. 11 attacks combing through the World Trade Center debris looking for survivors. And, riding on a ship for the first time, is a 20-year-old who learned about the attacks while in class at his Bronx middle school.

The New Yorkers spoke with particular excitement about passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and approaching the city to a 21-gun salute.

“That is going to be, hands down, the most amazing feeling to know I’m coming home on the U.S.S. New York,” said Frank Lewis, a Bronx resident who is a logistical specialist with the Navy Reserve. “I think that’ll even top the Yankees’ making the World Series, but we’ll see.”

etty Officer First Class Corey Lewis/United States Navy, via Getty ImageThe U.S.S. New York, whose bow includes steel recycled from the World Trade Center, began its journey to New York City.

Hudson Highlands Nature Museum Presents Evening Speaker Series

www.hhnaturemuseum.org EVENING SPEAKER SERIES ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING AND THE  CREATION OF DOWNING PARK Tuesday, October 13, 7:30pm at Painter's Tavern Professor Karen Eberle-McCarthy The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum presents the Fall Evening Speaker Series: Andrew Jackson Downing and the Creation of Downing Park This lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 13, 7:30pm at Painter's Tavern, 266 Hudson Street, Cornwall-on-Hudson. Due to limited seating, unpaid pre-registration is requested. Seats will be held until 7:15pm then walk-ins are welcome. Karen Eberle-McCarthy, professor at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh and President of the Downing Park Planning Committee, will discuss A.J. Downing's vision of public spaces and how the memorial park in Newburgh was created. Using historic pictures, Professor Eberle-McCarthy will show the creation and evolution of Downing Park. This program is funded, in-part, by the New York Council for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Admission for the lecture is $7, Museum members: $5. For registration and information call 845-534-5506, ext. 204.  "NATURE STROLLERS" Tuesday, October 13 at 10am OUTDOOR DISCOVERY CENTER Nature Strollers  On Tuesday, October 13 at 10am come for Nature Strollers, a hiking group for families with babies, toddlers and young children. Take a one-hour hike at the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum's Outdoor Discovery Center entrance on Muser Drive, across from 174 Angola Road, Cornwall. The popular Nature Stroller group will follow the gentle trails of the Outdoor Discovery Center and explore the field, pond and forest. The trails are stroller and toddler friendly. Meet at the visitors center. Cost per adult/child pair: $5, Members are free. Pre-registration requested. Registrated families will be called if rain-date is needed. For more information and pre-registration call 845-534-5506, ext. 204. Other Nature Stroller dates: November 10 at 10am.  Upcoming Speaker Series: Tuesday, October 20, 7:30p.m. –Only a Pond: The Story of Earth in a Drop of Hudson Valley Water Tuesday, October 27, 7:30p.m. – Slavery and Emancipation in New York and the Hudson Valley  Tuesday, November 3, 7:30p.m. – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Endangered, Exotic and Nuisance Species in the Hudson Highlands    Visit the Museum's website at hhnaturemuseum.org

"A Night @ HeadQuarters " WashingTons Historic Site Friday November 6 & Saturday November 7th

Pass through Washington's Headquarters' Centennial Fence and  visit the Hasbrouck House.   Palisades Interstate Park Commission  Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site  A Night at the Headquarters  Friday, November 6th and Saturday, November 7th, 2009 5:00 PM until 7:30 PM  A-haunting you will go when you accompany the watchman on his nightly imspection of Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, Newburgh. Make reservations for A Night At The Headquarters onFriday, November 6th or Saturday, November 7th. Be careful, though, you may come across things that go bump in the night.  Call 845-562-1195 to make reservations for a thirty minute tour. The first reserved tour begins at 5:00 PM. A new tour starts every 20 minutes, with the last reserved tour starting at 7:30 PM. Reservations accepted up to November 5th. Summon up your courage and head to the Museum to join the night watchman and begin your adventure. It's said there's safety in numbers. Who knows...? Admission for this Special Event is $4.00 per person, children 6 and under are free.  Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site is part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which administers 29 parks, parkways, and historic sites for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in New York as well as the Palisades Interstate Park and parkway in New Jersey. For more information about New York State parks and historic sites, please visitwww.nysparks.com and for more information about the Palisades Interstate Park parks and historic sites, please visit www.palisadesparksconservancy.org

Reflections Of A Rich Past @ Hyde Park Rail Station On River Road

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090930/NEWS01/909300321/1006

Hyde Park Railroad Station rich in history

ANTHONY P. MUSSO 

In a few days, the 1888 Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge will reopen as Walkway Over the Hudson, a pedestrian recreational trail. Five miles north of the bridge, another restored treasure that reflects the region's early railroad history is the Hyde Park Railroad Station.

In 1851, a wooden, one-story station was built on River Road, where Crum Elbow Creek flows into the river, by the Hudson River Railroad for its line that ran between New York City and Albany. In 1914, when the New York Central Railroad added two sets of tracks to the existing pair, the original station was torn down to make room for the new rails. The present station was built to replace it and its Spanish-revival and mission-style design was done by the same architectural firm that designed Grand Central Terminal and the Poughkeepsie Railroad Station.

Since New York Central's owner, Frederick Vanderbilt, lived part-time in the community, he frequently boarded a train at the station to get to and from Manhattan. Following the 1939 visit of England's king and queen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Hyde Park home, the royal couple left by train from the station.

"My parents were at the station when the king and queen left for Canada," town historian Patsy Costello said. "They had a special train car that was painted blue and gold. The crowd gathered to see them off sang ‘Auld Lang Syne' as the train pulled away."

Service ends in 1950s

As rail travel gave way to faster and more convenient air and automobile options during the 1950s, service at the Hyde Park station dwindled. Regular train service at the station ceased in 1953. Five years later, its whistle-stop status was terminated.

The town purchased the station but vandalism left the building in disrepair. Later, the Hudson Valley Railroad Society, a group of train enthusiasts, reached a deal to use the building.

"In the early 1970s a youth group used the station as a recreation center," said Jeff Armstrong, vice president of the society. "It was in rough shape and they didn't have the resources to keep it together.

"In 1975, there was a bulldozer next to the station ready to take it down," he said. "Our society came in with an 11th-hour proposal and signed a 40-year deal with the town to rent and restore it." It took the society 15 years to accomplish the restoration and it now uses the station as a museum, which includes scale model train layouts.

The last dignitary to use the station was President Harry Truman who, after accompanying Franklin Roosevelt's casket on a train back to Hyde Park, disembarked there to prepare for FDR's funeral.

Dateline appears each Wednesday. To suggest a topic, please call 845-437-4877. Reach Anthony Musso at railcommute@aol.com.

African American Culture & History Festival October 3-4 @ Senate House Historic Site

Courtesy of Kim and Reggie Harris   New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Palisades Interstate Park Commission Senate House State Historic Site  African American Culture and History Festival Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM LIVE MUSIC, DANCE, DRAMA, STORYTELLING, FOOD, HANDS-ON CRAFTS FOR KIDS A free, weekend-long festival at Senate House State Historic Site celebrates the specific contributions of African Americans to the Hudson Valley, New York, and the nation, as part of the Quadricentennial-year celebrations. Saturday, October 3, and Sunday October 4 will be filled with live music, dance, drama, and spoken word performances, as well as art, hands-on activities, food, and free tours of Senate House. Some of the scheduled artists include recent finalists on the TV show America's Got Talent: the young a cappella threesome Voices of Glory, renowned performers Kim and Reggie Harris, The Voices of Praise choir, Ulster County Community Choir; Energy Dance Troupe, SUNY New Paltz Shades Step Team, Kibola Sougei African Dance Troupe, and historical dramatistsCarolyn Evans (as Sojourner Truth) and Terry Gittens (as Bessie Mae).  This event occurs rain or shine. Senate House will also debut its African American Oral History recordings, made recently in collaboration with the Ulstercorps Harvesting a Lifetime Oral History Project, conducted with residents of Ulster County who shared with us their experiences over the past six decades. These special events are sponsored by the Friends of Senate House, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area in partnership with the National Park Service and Congressman Maurice Hinchey, and the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. Senate House State Historic Site is located at 296 Fair Street, Kingston, NY 12401.  For more information please call (845) 338-2786 or visit the following website: www.nysparks.state.ny.us.

Fort Montgomery Evening Lecture Series Presents "The War Man" Thursday October 1

Cover art for The War Man, Robert Mayer's account of  Haverstraw native, John Allison   New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Palisades Interstate Park Commission Fort Montgomery State Historic Site  Evening Lecture Series  Thursday, October 1, 2009 7 p.m. Robert A. Mayers, the author of The War Man: The True Story of a Citizen-Soldier Who Fought from Quebec to Yorktown Gives An Intimate Portrait of a Real Soldier of the American Revolution Using letters, muster rolls, orderly books, service records, and oral family history, Robert A. Mayers reconstructs the campaign life of Haverstraw native John Allison from the freezing Canadian wilderness, through the battle of Fort Montgomery and the Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois, to the bitter winter at Morristown, New Jersey, and the decisive American victory at Yorktown, Virginia. During Allison's eight-year military career, he survived numerous skirmishes and battles across the colonies, was promoted to the rank of corporal, and returned home a local hero. The War Man: the True Story of a Citizen-Soldier Who Fought from Quebec to Yorktown is a unique opportunity to follow the entire course of the American Revolution through the eyes of a front-line volunteer. Book signing to follow lecture FREE Lecture  brought to you by the Fort Montgomery Battle Site Association FORT MONTGOMERY STATE HISTORIC SITE 690 ROUTE 9W FORT MONTGOMERY, NY 10922 (845) 446-2134