千里之行，始於足下

– 老子 

The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.

                                    - Laozi

Up the Noord Rivier (as the Dutch called it), past Spuyten Duyvel (Spitting Devil, for the roiling waters separating Manhattan from the Bronx)… Yonkers (named for the Jonkheer Adriaen van der Donck) … Philipse Manor (built in 1682 by Frederick Philipse who amassed an enormous estate encompassing the entire modern City of Yonkers)… Dobbs Ferry (home to the oldest oyster shell middens in North America, dated to 6950 B.C.)… Ossining (from the Sint Sinck tribe later corrupted to Sing Sing – also owned by de Heer Philipse)… then Haverstroo (“Oat straw”)

So we traveled 41 miles from Jersey City to Haverstraw today in rain and fog – none of which was forecast or acknowledged on any of the weather apps.  Nonetheless, we fell upon the ruins of the old Tappan Zee bridge looking like a bite had been taken out of its middle, with the bite resting off to the side…

Old Tappan Zee Bridge missing its centerpiece

Centerpiece resting on a barge toward the west bank

The remarkable nature of the Hudson is that it is situated at its mouth at one of the greatest seething masses of humanity on the starboard side – modern Manhattan - and then a mere 10 miles later on the port side – the Palisades which resemble what Henry Hudson must have seen in 1609 – when he explored part of what is now Haverstraw (named for the grasses that grew there).

"The Dutch described the fine, tall-grassed meadows, the woodlands, fields of wildflowers, the streams, the variety of the cooing and clattering birds, the deliciousness of the native nuts, wild cherries, currants, gooseberries, hazelnuts, apples and pears, and especially strawberries. … The rivers and the streams had so many fish – striped bass, sturgeon, shad, drum fish, carp, perch, pike, and trout – that they could be yanked out of the water by hand."  - Mark, Kurlansky, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell 

But Henry Hudson wasn’t looking for natural paradises – he was looking for a water route to the Sea of Cathay that he had heard could be found via a major river north of Virginia (the Hudson!) based on the chatter of local tribes speaking about how they could travel up that river, follow a Mohawk tributary with a short land portage, and arrive at any one of the Great Lakes – which anyone could mistake for a vast sea…  And that is where we will soon be going.