Hudson River

Hudson River Ka’nón:no (Mohawk) Mahicannittuk (Mahican) Muhheakantuck / Mahicannitukw (Munsee)
Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River as seen from Bear Mountain in New York state
Location
Country	United States
State	New York, New Jersey
City	See Populated places on the Hudson River
Physical characteristics
Source	Henderson Lake (New York) (See Sources)
• location	Adirondack Mountains, New York, United States
• coordinates	44°05′29″N 74°03′33″W / 44.09139°N 74.05917°W / 44.09139; -74.05917[1]
• elevation	1,770 ft (540 m)[2]
Mouth	New York Harbor
• location	Jersey City, New Jersey and Lower Manhattan, New York, United States
• coordinates	40°41′48″N 74°01′42″W / 40.69667°N 74.02833°W / 40.69667; -74.02833[1]
• elevation	0 ft (0 m)
Length	315 mi (507 km)
Basin size	14,000 sq mi (36,000 km2)
Depth
• average	30 ft (9.1 m) (extent south of Troy)
• maximum	202 ft (62 m)
Discharge
• location	Lower New York Bay[3]
• average	21,900 cu ft/s (620 m3/s)
Discharge
• location	Green Island[4]
• average	17,400 cu ft/s (490 m3/s)
• minimum	882 cu ft/s (25.0 m3/s)
• maximum	215,000 cu ft/s (6,100 m3/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Boreas River, Schroon River, Batten Kill, Hoosic River, Kinderhook Creek, Roeliff Jansen Kill, Wappinger Creek, Croton River
• right	Cedar River, Indian River, Sacandaga River, Mohawk River, Normans Kill, Catskill Creek, Esopus Creek, Rondout Creek, Wallkill River
Waterfalls	Ord Falls, Spier Falls, Glens Falls, Bakers Falls
The Hudson River Watershed, including the Hudson and Mohawk rivers

The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York, United States. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York at Henderson Lake in the town of Newcomb, and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New York City and Jersey City, eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Upper New York Bay. The river serves as a physical boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Farther north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet that formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Even as far north as the city of Troy, the flow of the river changes direction with the tides.

The Hudson River runs through the Munsee, Lenape, Mohican, Mohawk, and Haudenosaunee homelands. Prior to European exploration, the river was known as the Mahicannittuk by the Mohicans, Ka'nón:no by the Mohawks, and Muhheakantuck by the Lenape. The river was subsequently named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company who explored it in 1609, and after whom Hudson Bay in Canada is also named. It had previously been observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailing for King Francis I of France in 1524, as he became the first European known to have entered the Upper New York Bay, but he considered the river to be an estuary. The Dutch called the river the North River, and they called the present-day Delaware River the South River, which formed the spine of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Settlements of the colony clustered around the Hudson, and its strategic importance as the gateway to the American interior led to years of competition between the English and the Dutch over control of the river and colony.

During the 18th century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the nineteenth century, the area inspired the Hudson River School of landscape painting, an American pastoral style, as well as the concepts of environmentalism and wilderness. The Hudson River was also the eastern outlet for the Erie Canal, which, when completed in 1825, became an important transportation artery for the early 19th century United States.

Pollution in the Hudson River increased in the 20th century, more acutely by mid-century, particularly with industrial contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, also known by their acronym PCBs. Pollution control regulations, enforcement actions and restoration projects initiated in the latter 20th century have begun to improve water quality, and restoration work has continued in the 21st century.^[5][6]