The Palisades (Hudson River)

	The Palisades
	The cliffs of the Palisades of West 187th Street and Chittenden Avenue in Hudson Heights, Manhattan seen from
location	Hudson County , Bergen County , New Jersey ; Rockland County , New York (State) , United States
Geographical location	40 ° 58 ' N , 73 ° 55' W Coordinates: 40 ° 57 '52 " N , 73 ° 54' 31" W
Setup date	1983

The Palisades , also: New Jersey Palisades , Hudson River Palisades , are a series of high cliffs along the west bank of the lower Hudson River in the Gateway Region of New Jersey and Downstate New York in the United States . The cliffs stretch from the northern edge of Jersey City about 20 miles north to the vicinity of Nyack and visible as far as Haverstraw , New York. They rise almost vertically from the bank of the river and reach heights of 90 m (300 ft ) at Weehawken and gradually rise from there until they reach 165 m (540 ft) at their north end. North of Fort Lee , the Palisades are part of the Palisades Interstate Park and are a National Natural Landmark .

The Palisades are among the most dramatic geological formations around New York City . They form a canyon for the Hudson, north of the George Washington Bridge , and offer spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline . They belong to the Newark Basin , a crevasse basin in the New Jersey area.

Surname

The name “ palisade ” is derived from the Latin word palus (dt. Rod). A “palisade” is usually a defense fence made of logs or poles. The Lenape referred to the cliffs as "rocks that look like a line of trees," a word from which the current name "Weehawken" originated, the name of the New Jersey town that sits on the hill above the cliffs on the opposite Side of Midtown Manhattan .

geology

The basalt -Kliffs are the edge of a diabase - bearing gear (sill), which has formed some 200 million years ago and belong to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province . At the end of the Triassic , magma came up in a fracture in the sandstone . The molten rock cooled before reaching the surface. Erosion carried away the surrounding sandstone, leaving the columnar structures of the harder basalt that now form the cliffs. The layers that make up the cliffs are approximately 100 m (300 ft) thick and originally perhaps reached a thickness of 300 m.

The massive extinction of species on the Permian-Triassic border ("Great Dying") coincides with the formation of the Hudson Palisades. At the same time, the flood-like pouring of basalt also occurred, which led to the formation of the Siberian trap , with 2,000,000 km² being flooded with lava.

Geologist Franklyn Van Houten conducted pioneering research in the Newark Basin. He discovered a coherent geological pattern in the course of which the water levels of various lakes rose and fell again. This cycle is known today as the “Van Houten cycle”.

history

Colored postcard of the Palisades, ca.1898.

"The Palisades" appear on Gerardus Mercator's first European map of the New World , which he created in 1541 on the basis of descriptions by Giovanni da Verrazzano . Verrazzano described the Palisades as a "fence of stakes".

In the early days of the American Revolution who landed British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis at Closter Dock Landing on a troop. On November 20, 1776, 2,500 to 5,000 soldiers disembarked from the ships. He tried to launch a surprise attack on George Washington and crush the rebellion before the Americans were defeated at the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Fort Washington . Cornwallis led his men over the steep Palisades and south through the Northern Valley . Washington, who was stationed at Fort Lee at the time, was notified by an unknown patriot on horseback known only as the "Closter Rider." Washington then fled west through Englewood and over the Hackensack River . The incident is known as "Washington's Retreat".

The Palisades were also the venue of 18 documented and possibly some other undocumented duels between 1798 and 1845. The most famous of these was the "Burr-Hamilton duel" between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr , that on 11 July 1804 in the Heights of Weehawken held .

After the civil war , the cliffs were used extensively as advertising space for patent medicines and other similar products. The advertising posters were written on the rock in letters up to 6.1 m (20 ft) high.

In the 19th century the rocks were intensively changed by quarries. They built the cliffs from crushed rock for bedding of railway train paths to win. With this, however, the first local efforts to protect the formation began. In the 1890s there were several unsuccessful attempts to designate the hill as a Forest Preserve . Fearing that they would soon lose their business, the quarry companies worked all the faster. In March 1898 alone, more than three tons of dynamite were used to blow up Washington Head and Indian Head at Fort Lee , producing several million basalt chippings. The following year, a campaign by the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs finally led to the creation of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission , led by George W. Perkins . Perkins was given authority to acquire land between Fort Lee and Piermont , New York. The power of attorney was extended to Stony Point , New York in 1906 .

The Palisades as seen from the Ross Dock Picnic Area in Palisades Interstate Park .

In 1908, New York State announced plans to move Sing Sing Prison to Bear Mountain . Work began in the Highland Lake (Hessian Lake) area and in January 1909 the state acquired 740 acres on Bear Mountain . Environmentalists, encouraged by the work of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, worked successfully to create the Highlands of the Hudson Forest Preserve . Even so, the prison project continued. Mary Averell Harriman , whose husband, Union Pacific Railroad President E. H. Harriman died in September 1909, offered the state an additional 10,000 acres and $ 1 million. to start a state park . George Walbridge Perkins , who was then President of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (1900-1920) and with whom she had worked, raised an additional $ 1.5 million. composed of donors such as John D. Rockefeller and JP Morgan . New York State had an additional $ 2.5 million. and the State of New Jersey another $ 500,000 to build Henry Hudson Drive (the forerunner of the Palisades Interstate Parkway from 1947). Ultimately, the laying of the Sing Sing was called off.

In the 1910s, when Fort Lee was the center of film production, the cliffs were widely used as film sets. The most famous film that was made there was The Perils of Pauline , a film series through which the term " cliffhanger " became popular.

In October 1931, after four years of construction, the George Washington Bridge was opened, which has since connected Upper Manhattan and Fort Lee.

On April 28, 1940, the Boy Scout Foundation of Greater New York announced the donation of 723 acres by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to create a weekend camp for New York City Boy Scouts Scouts .

In June 1983, the Palisades were designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service .

On May 12, 2012, a rockfall weighing approximately 10,000 tons south of the state line caused a 160 m (520 ft) wide gap in the cliffs.

Palisades is now part of the "Palisades Interstate Park", a popular hiking destination. The sanctuary also includes Harriman - Bear Mountain State Park , Minnewaska State Park Preserve, and various other parks and historic sites.

On 23 June 2015, the leaders of the announced South Korean company LG Group that the construction of the planned new headquarters for North America in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey should be modified. Originally, the building was supposed to reach a height of 143 ft (44 m), which would have broken the silhouette of the treetops at the height of the cliffs. The new plans stipulated that the building should only reach 21 m (69 ft) in height, which should preserve the landscape. The building had been criticized by a number of conservation groups and politicians, including four former New Jersey governors.

The Palisades, with autumn colors . Left the George Washington Bridge .

Individual evidence

^ Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.

^ "Township of Palisade" on the Bergen County website

↑ Tricia Tirella: "Spotlight on North Bergen". Palisade magazine, Summer 2010: 16.

^ ^A ^b Peter Brannen: "Headstone for an Apocalypse" (op-ed) New York Times August 6, 2013.

↑ Jennifer Chu: Huge and widespread volcanic eruptions triggered the end-Triassic extinction. MIT News , March 21, 2013.

↑ "The Great Dying ': MIT Insights into the Most Severe Mass Extinction in Earth's History" The Daily Galaxy November 24, 2013.

^ David L. Chandler: Ancient whodunit may be solved: The microbes did it! MIT News March 31, 2014.

↑ [1]

↑ Structural Geology & Tectonics Group "Van Houten cycle" (illustration) on the homepage of Rutgers University .

↑ Olsen: Milankovich Cycles in Early Mesozoic Rift Basins of Eastern North America Provide Physical Stratigraphy and Time Scale for Understanding Basin Evolution. In: Lamont Newsletter 13 , 1986: 6-7, on the homepage of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory .

^ Kita MacPherson: Franklyn Van Houten, expert on sedimentary rocks, dies at 96. News at Princeton. September 14, 2010 on Princeton University's home page .

^ Georgette E. Chalker: "Franklyn Bosworth Van Houten 1914-2010" Princeton University Department of Geosciences. February 10, 2011.

↑ ^a ^b Jerry Cheslow: If You're Thinking of Living In Alpine, NJ; Lavish Homes in a Millionaire's Borough. In: New York Times , December 14, 1997.

^ Kate Rounds: Preserving Palisades from development Commissioners also tackle road repairs, hybrid car. In: Hudson Reporter , June 15, 2008.

^ Steuben heights history.

↑ Mysterious Ascent Njpalisades.org.

^ Fort Lee, Retreat to Victory. 5thny.org

^ Living History Marks. northjersey.com.

^ Joseph Ellis : Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Chapter One: The Duel. Alfred A. Knopf , New York 2000. ISBN 0-375-40544-5

↑ ^a ^b James O'Neill: Palisades scar is proof of nature's raw power. In: Bergen County Record July 7, 2012.

↑ Joan Verdon: A hike back in time to era of silent film. In: Bergen County Record , March 5, 2012.

↑ David M. Malatzky: Origin of Alpine Scout Camp. ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2006, Homepage of the Ten Mile River Scout Museum . @1@ 2