The First Suspension Bridge to Cross the Hudson River – 1871

Eight or ten years ago, when some of the last of the Finch-Pruyn lands were transferred from the Nature Conservancy to the State of New York, my wife and I hiked into Palmer Pond and then bushwhacked down to the Hudson River on the last of their logging roads.  Almost at the edge of the riverbank there was a log-header and just behind he the header was what appeared to be the remains of an old roadway.  We followed the overgrown roadway for approximately a quarter of a mile.  We then turned around, not knowing if we had inadvertently hiked on to private lands.  However that memory of the roadway lingered in my mind.  Where did it go ??

A few years later a friend and I were paddling the Hudson River from Riparius to the Glen and after paddling through “Z rapids” and “Horse Race Rapids” we stopped to rest at the Washburn’s Eddy.  There, my friend pointed out (river left) two iron cables that reached down the rock face and entered the water.  What was this ?   My friend told me that it was the remains of a bridge that had one time crossed the Hudson River.

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