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Hudson River Chain
The Hudson River Chains were a series of chain booms constructed across the Hudson River at West Point by Continental Army forces from 1776 to 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. These served as defenses preventing British naval vessels from sailing upriver and were overseen by the Highlands Department of the Continental Army. The first chain was destroyed by British forces in the aftermath of the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery in October 1777. The more significant and successful was the Great Chain, constructed in 1778 and used through war's end in 1782. Two other barriers across the river, referred to as ''chevaux-de-frise'', were undertaken by the Colonials; the first, between Fort Washington on the island of Manhattan, and Fort Lee in New Jersey, was completed in 1776 and shortly seized by the British; another was started in 1776 between Plum Point on the east bank and Pollepel Island north of West Point but abandoned in 1777 in favor of completion of the G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boom (navigational Barrier)
A boom or a chain (also boom defence, harbour chain, river chain, chain boom, boom chain or variants) is an obstacle strung across a navigable stretch of water to control or block navigation. In modern times they usually have civil uses, such as to prevent access to a dangerous river channel. But, especially historically, they have been used militarily, with the goal of denying access to an enemy's ships: a modern example is the anti-submarine net. Booms have also been used to force passing vessels to pay a toll. Description A boom generally floats on the surface, while a chain can be on the surface or below the water. A chain could be made to float with rafts, logs, ships or other wood, making the chain a boom as well. Historical uses Especially in medieval times, the end of a chain could be attached to a chain tower or boom tower. This allowed safe raising or lowering of the chain, as they were often heavily fortified. By raising or lowering a chain or boom, access could be s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount and a sight. They launch explosive shells (technically called bombs) in high-arcing ballistic trajectories. Mortars are typically used as indirect fire weapons for close fire support with a variety of ammunition. History Mortars have been used for hundreds of years. The earliest mortars were used in Korea in a 1413 naval battle when Korean gunsmiths developed the ''wan'gu'' (gourd-shaped mortar) (완구, 碗口). The earliest version of the ''wan'gu'' dates back to 1407. Choi Hae-san (최해산, 崔海山) (1380–1443), the son of Choe Mu-seon (최무선, 崔茂宣) (1325–1395), is generally credited with inventing the ''wan'gu''. In the Ming dynasty, general Qi Jiguang recorded the use of a mini cannon called the Hu dun pao that was simi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Island
Constitution Island is in the Northeastern United States, northeastern United States, located in New York (state), New York on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. It is directly opposite the United States Military Academy, U.S. Military Academy Reservation at West Point, New York, West Point and is connected to the east shore by Constitution Marsh. It is the only part of the U.S. Military Academy Reservation on the east side of the Hudson River. Formerly known as "Martelaer's Rock", Constitution Island is the site of the earliest American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War fortifications in the Hudson Valley. Taken briefly by the British in 1777, the island was re-occupied by American forces in 1778, and made an integral part of Fortress West Point. The island was bequeathed to the military academy in 1909 and has been administered by the West Point Museum ever since. The Education Center was completed in 2016, the Warner House has been completel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony's Nose (Westchester County, New York)
Anthony's Nose is a peak in the Hudson Highlands along the east bank of the Hudson River in the hamlet of Cortlandt Manor, New York. It lies at the extreme northwest end of Westchester County, and serves as the east anchor of the Bear Mountain Bridge. Topography Anthony's Nose, together with Dunderberg Mountain, comprises the South Gate of the Hudson Highlands. It forms a ridge running northeast and southwest, being separated from Canada Hill to the northeast by Copper Mine Brook and the "South Mountain Pass", and being bordered on the southwest by the Hudson. The Hudson makes a turn around the southwestern tip, so that the northwestern side also slopes down to salt marshes along the river. On the southeastern side are Mine Mountain and, across Broccy Creek, Manitou Mountain. Most of this land is part of Camp Smith, a New York National Guard reservation.New York–New Jersey Trail Conference Trail Map 101, East Hudson Trails: Hudson Highlands State Park US 6/202 crosses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bear Mountain Bridge
The Bear Mountain Bridge, ceremonially named the Purple Heart Veterans Memorial Bridge, is a toll suspension bridge in New York State. It carries US 6 and US 202 across the Hudson River between Bear Mountain State Park in Orange County and Cortlandt in Westchester County. At completion in 1924 it was longest suspension bridge in the world until this record was surpassed 19 months later by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. The Bear Mountain Bridge is unconventional among suspension bridges: though its main span (between the towers) is suspended by cables in the usual manner, the approach spans (outside the towers) do not have suspender cables and are instead unsuspended trusses, like the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City. The span enables connections between the Palisades Interstate Parkway and US 9W on the west bank near Bear Mountain and NY 9D on the east bank as well as US 9 and the Bear Mountain Parkway farther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popolopen
Popolopen is the name of several related landmarks mainly within the Hudson Highlands of Orange County, New York. These include a mountain, Popolopen Torne—or simply "The Torne", and a short and steep-sided nearby valley officially called Hell Hole, but often Popolopen Gorge. Popolopen Creek runs through this valley. The Popolopen Bridge spans its mouth at the Hudson River and is crossed by Route 9W. Popolopen Lake feeds the headwaters of its namesake creek. Despite local usage, the United States Board on Geographical Names recognizes only the lake, creek and bridge as bearing the name "Popolopen. Popolopen Torne Popolopen Torne (officially called "The Torne") is a small mountain with a relatively sharp and bald peak, part of the Hudson Highlands, with a summit 942 feet (287.12 meters) above sea level. The blue-trail blazing, blazed, horseshoe-shaped Timp Torne trail makes a loop from Mine Torne Road to the summit and back again. Its short and steep ascent offers hikers 360� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Montgomery (Hudson River)
Fort Montgomery was a fortification built on the west bank of the Hudson River in Highlands, New York by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Erected in 1776, Fort Montgomery was one of the first major investments by the Americans in strategic construction projects. Declared a National Historic Landmark, it is part of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, owned and operated by the state of New York as the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site. Background The strategic importance of the ability to control navigation along the Hudson River was obvious to both the Americans and the British from the outbreak of open hostilities. The Hudson was the major means for transportation of supplies and troops throughout a large portion of the northeast. The fort was constructed at a site noted as early as the seventeenth century for its strategic advantage in controlling navigation along the river. A month after the first open armed conflict in Lexington, the Contin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hudson Highlands
The Hudson Highlands are mountains on both sides of the Hudson River in New York state lying primarily in Putnam County on its east bank and Orange County on its west. They continue somewhat to the south in Westchester County and Rockland County, respectively. North to south they fall between Newburgh Bay and Haverstraw Bay, the latter forming the northern region of the New York - New Jersey Highlands. The Hudson River enters this region in the south at Dunderberg Mountain near Stony Point, and from the north in the vicinity of Breakneck Ridge and Storm King Mountain near Cornwall, New York. These highlands have played a significant role in America's environmental, cultural, and military history. Geology The bedrock of the Highlands is part of the Reading Prong and more than a billion years old, formed during the Grenville Orogeny. It represents the very core of the Appalachian range, which has been formed by successive mountain-building events ( orogenies). The present mou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheval De Frise
The ''cheval de frise'' (plural: ''chevaux de frise'' , " Frisian horses") is a defensive obstacle, which existed in a number of forms and were employed in various applications. These included underwater constructions used to prevent the passage of ships or other vessels on rivers, or as anti-cavalry measure consisting of a portable frame (sometimes just a simple log) covered with many projecting long iron or wooden spikes or spears. They were principally intended as an anti- cavalry obstacle but could also be moved quickly to help block a breach in another barrier. They remained in occasional use until they were replaced by wire obstacles just after the American Civil War. During the Civil War, the Confederates used this type of barrier more often than the Union forces. During World War I, armies used ''chevaux de frise'' to temporarily plug gaps in barbed wire. Barbed wire ''chevaux de frise'' were used in jungle fighting on the South Pacific islands during World War II. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Committee Of Safety (American Revolution)
In the American Revolution, committees of correspondence, committees of inspection (also known as committees of observation), and committees of safety were different local committees of Patriots that became a shadow government; they took control of the Thirteen Colonies away from royal officials, who became increasingly helpless.T. H. Breen, ''American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People'' (Macmillan, 2010), pp. 162, 186–89. In Massachusetts, as affairs drew toward a crisis, it became usual for towns to appoint three committees: of correspondence, of inspection, and of safety. The first was to keep the community informed of dangers either legislative or executive, and concert measures of public good; the second to watch for violations of , or attempts of loyalists to evade them; the third to act as general executive while the legal authority was in abeyance. In February 1776 these were regularly legalized by the Massachusetts General Court but consolidate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Depth Sounding
Depth sounding, often simply called sounding, is measuring the depth of a body of water. Data taken from soundings are used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water, such as the seabed topography. Soundings were traditionally shown on nautical charts in fathoms and feet. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for bathymetric data in the United States, still uses fathoms and feet on nautical charts. In other countries, the International System of Units (metres) has become the standard for measuring depth. Terminology "Sounding" derives from the Old English ''sund'', meaning "swimming, water, sea"; it is not related to the word ''sound'' in the sense of noise or tones, but to ''sound'', a geographical term. Traditional terms for soundings are a source for common expressions in the English language, notably "deep six" (a sounding of 6 fathoms). On the Mississippi River in the 1850s, the leadsmen also used old-fashione ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Livingston (legislator)
Gilbert Livingston (December 17, 1742 – September 14, 1806) was a lawyer who, in 1788, served as a delegate to the Poughkeepsie Convention where, despite having arrived at the convention as an Anti-Federalist, he ultimately voted to ratify the United States Constitution. Both before and after that ratification convention, he served in the New York Assembly, representing Dutchess County. Livingston had also been a member of the New York Provincial Congress. Early life Gilbert was one of the thirteen children of Henry Livingston, Sr. and Susanna Conklin Livingston. Gilbert's father, Henry, was County Clerk in Dutchess County, as well as a legislator in colonial New York. They were members of a less affluent branch of the prominent Livingston family of New York.Wakelyn, Jon. Birth of the Bill of Rights: Biographies', pp. 121-123 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004). One of Gilbert's great-grandfathers was the wealthy New York colonial official Robert Livingston the Elder, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
