History/Change Over Time

The Hudson River is named after Henry Hudson. Hudson sailed the north Atlantic coast of America in 1609 looking for a quick passage to China. [3]
Throughout the late 1700's there were many military forts set up along the river north of New York City including West Point, Fort Clinton, and Fort Montgomery. [3]
Throughout the 1800's the river was widely used for steamboat travel as it was fast and affordable. [3]
In 1825, the Erie Canal was completed and utilized the Hudson River. It was one of the nation's main forms of trade as it opened up a gateway to the west. The canal also caused economic and industrial expansion along the Hudson. [3]
In the mid-1800's tuberculosis and other diseases began to spread through New York City and the river was sort of a health retreat as people from the city thought that it held therapeutic powers. They used the river to swim, fish, hike and do numerous other activities. [3]
Eventually, throughout the early 19th century would become toxic as the factories/plants along the riverwould dump radioactive industrial waste in the river. The river became filled with sewage and chemicals and affected the ecosystem for the fish who lived in the water. [7]

PCB levels in Striped Bass on the East Coast; part per trillion (ppt) = 1/1000 of a ppm. This graph shows that the PCB's in fish in the Hudson River are much higher than in other waters across America. This graph came from www.carysinstitute.org.

A main offender of polluting the river was the General Motors plant who used nearly 1 million gallons of water per day and released it untreated back into the river. [7]

Ultimately, the massive General Motors plant would essentially engulf the Stanford White-designed Maxwell Briscoe factory. Photo courtesy of The Historical Society Serving Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. [7]

In 1976, fishing in certain parts of the river became prohibited because PCB's were found in fish. [7]
In 1984, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified the river as "some of the nation's most contaminated land". [7]
In 2019, the state of New York sued the EPA because the PCB levels remained "dangerously high" after the EPA awarded General Electric for its years of "PCB dredging". [7]
To this day, toxins can be found in certain parts of the river. However, people still swim and participate in water activities in the river. [4]

People swimming in the Hudson River. [4]

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