Memorial Miles: October 2009

Saturday morning October 17, 2009 started out as a cold rainy day, but I decided to put on my running gear and head up to Bear Mountain to see if I could catch some of the fall foliage. I took off on my “Hudson River Ramble” heading North on Route 9W, which has great views of the Hudson River all along the trip.

On my way through Haverstraw heading into Stony Point, I remember a place my father would take us as kids and he would stop along the way to show us the “Mothballed” fleet World War II troop transport ships that were moored there. Today there is only monument to remember their service. I stopped to view the monument and remember the found times I had with my dad.

The weather continued to hold so I continued on my way to Bear Mountain; it must have been that kind of day, as you leave the monument which is just about at the level of the river bank, the road makes a sharp climb up a steep and windy mountain side. I start to laugh as I remember the time Jill was learning t drive and we were heading up this same road and when we got about half way up I noticed there was no longer any guardrail, as it had been removed for construction. Now let me tell you, the edge was close, the cliff was steep, but we had no choice but to keep going. Neither one of said a word, when we finally got to the top and began to head down the other side, we both looked at each other and started to laugh. Anyway it was a moment I will always remember every time I am on that stretch of road.

I finally got to Bear Mountain and decide I would run over the Bear Mountain Bridge, so I headed out from the lodge and made for the bridge. While running the bridge I was passed by cadets from the West Point marathon team, they passed me like I was standing still. Once on the bridge I had to stop and take a few photos, the view is great and I am glad I made the effort to do it.

After my run, continued my Hudson River Ramble by heading to the historic Stony Point Battlefield and Lighthouse. The last time I had visited the Stony Point Light House was almost 40 years ago. We had come as cub scouts, my mother as den mother would often take us the parks or points of interest in the area. As the Hudson Valley area is rich with history we did a lot of great field trips.

After the Stony Point Light House, I stopped at the Stony Point Memorial Park and visited their September 11, 2001 memorial. I finally made my way home and headed to the Nanuet – Pearl River “Little Brown Jug” football game. This is a big game between my high school (Nanuet) and my wife’s high school (Pearl River). I am happy to report that Nanuet won 41 – 0. Go Knights!

National Defense Reserve Fleet Monument
Route 9W, Stony Point, NY

The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) was established under Section 11 of the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 to serve as a reserve or “mothballed” of ships for national defense and national emergency purposes. The NDRF anchorages were originally located at Stony Point in New York, Fort Eustis in the James River in Virginia, Wilmington in North Carolina, Mobile in Alabama, Beaumont in Texas, Benicia in Suisun Bay in California, Astoria in Oregon and Olympia in Washington. At its peak in 1950, the NDRF had custody of 2,277 ships.

NDRF vessels are now located at the James River, Beaumont and Suisun Bay anchorages and at designated port facility berths. The program primarily consists of dry cargo ships with some tankers and military auxiliaries. As of April 1, 2009, there were 180 vessels in the NDRF. A Ready Reserve Fleet component was established in 1976 as a subset of the NDRF to provide rapid deployment of military equipment. Later, this became known as the Ready Reserve Force (RRF), which now numbers 50 vessels. In addition to maintaining ships for USTRANSCOM logistics, the Missile Defense Agency sponsors 2 ships for missile tracking. One vessel is currently operational and a second vessel is schedule to be delivered in FY2010. An additional 23 non-NDRF ships are also held for other Government agencies on a cost-reimbursable basis.

The plaque reads:
This Plaque Commemorates The Hudson River National Defense Reserve Fleet Moored At This Point In The River From April 1946 To April 1971. At Peak Of Activity, 189 WW II Cargo And Passenger Ships Were Anchored Here. These Ships After Heroic WW II Service Were Retained Here For Possible Further Need, During Years Of Grain Surplus They Acted As Floating Silos. Many Were Called Upon To Carry Food, Fuel And Other Essential Supplies To Aid Our Overseas Friends And To Support Our Armed Forces Abroad. They Served Their Country Well.
Erected By U.S. Department of Commerce Maritime Administration July 1971

Bear Mountain State Park

Bear Mountain State Park in Bear Mountain, N.Y., has something for everyone. From miles of hiking trails to an inn with all the comforts of home, the park offers nature in all of its glory for both the avid outdoors man as well as those just out for a scenic Sunday stroll.

Nestled along the Hudson River, Bear Mountain was so-named because the profile of the mountain resembles a bear lying down.

Park History
Now part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the area was saved in the early 1900s as development along the river began to destroy much of the area's natural beauty.
Numerous efforts were made at the turn of the century to turn much of the Hudson Highlands, the area along the Hudson River from about Peekskill to Newburgh, to a forest preserve. All of these, however, were unsuccessful until the state of New York tried to relocate Sing Sing Prison to Bear Mountain. It was then that some of the wealthy businessmen who had made homes in the area went to work.

Led by Union Pacific railroad president E.W. Harriman, a group of wealthy and influential businessman donated land as well as large sums of money for the purchase of other properties in the area. Bear Mountain-Harriman State Park became a reality in 1910. By 1914, estimates showed more than a million people a year coming to the park. Camping became popular here, with the average stay logged at eight days, and it was a favorite for Boy Scouts.

Bear Mountain remains popular today, welcoming more visitors every year than Yellowstone National Park. Hiking, boating, picnicking, swimming, cross-country skiing, sledding, ice skating as well as a zoo and trail side museums; continue to draw families to the park.

official park Web site.

A trail of history – The Appalachian Trial

The first section of the Appalachian Trial was created at Bear Mountain, taking hikers south to the Delaware Water Gap. It opened on Oct. 7, 1923, and served as a pattern for the other sections of the trail, developed independently by local and regional organizations and then joined.
In the mid-1930s the federal government led by Franklin D. Roosevelt was embarking on its own plan to preserve the environment. The Depression-era public works programs, including the Civil Works Administration and then the Work Progress Administration, spent five years on projects at Bear Mountain State Park.

Pump houses, reservoirs, sewer systems, vacation lodges, bathrooms, homes for park staff, storage buildings and an administration building were all created through these programs. A scenic drive to the top of the mountain, called Perkins Memorial Drive, was also constructed -- almost totally by hand. And although construction equipment and newer easier-to-work-with building materials were available for use at the time, planners wanted these new buildings constructed with the same principles and designs used to build the lodge in 1915. Workers used stone, boulders and timber to construct the new buildings, a process which took them five years.

Bear Mountain Bridge

CROSSING THE HIGHLANDS: The Bear Mountain Bridge, the southernmost crossing administered by the New York State Bridge Authority, carries US 6 and US 202 across the Hudson River, from Bear Mountain State Park at the northern tip of Rockland County to the northwestern corner of Westchester County. On the western approach, which actually lies in Orange County (the Orange-Rockland border runs diagonally between the toll plaza and the superstructure), the bridge connects to US 9W and the Palisades Interstate Parkway. On the eastern approach, the bridge connects to NY 9D.

Plans for the bridge date as far back as 1868, when the first charter for a railroad bridge was obtained. The initial proposal by General Edward W. Serrell, which was featured in a Harper's Weekly article, employed a suspension span design similar to that of the Brooklyn Bridge. The truss-stiffened deck was to be supported over the Hudson River by four main cables and two masonry towers. Despite three attempts at starting construction, none of them got past the initial stages.

As the twentieth century began, private ferry companies initiated passenger service in the Highlands. When nearby Bear Mountain State Park opened in 1916, it quickly became a popular destination for New Yorkers. Before long, getting to and from the park meant long delays at the ferry terminal, or during nighttime or winter periods, not getting across at all. Even when they were available, ferries crossing the river between Peekskill and Bear Mountain State Park had waits of as much as four hours.The Bear Mountain Bridge was the first vehicular river crossing between New York City and Albany. At the time it was built, it was also the longest suspension bridge in the world and the first suspended bridge to have a concrete deck.

The project of building the Bear Mountain Bridge marked the beginning of a golden age of long span bridge building along the Hudson River and throughout the New York metropolitan area. The success of the inventive methods used broke new ground and paved the way for the building of other suspension bridges such as the George Washington and the Golden Gate.
ENGINEERING: Construction of the bridge began immediately following the March 24, 1922 signing of the contract. The Bear Mountain Bridge would be the longest suspension bridge in existence. The location was unusually well-suited for a suspension bridge as the river narrows at this point and the rock formation provides a natural foundation for the piers and necessary anchorages for the cables.

The three year time limit imposed upon the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Company to construct the bridge however, played an interesting part in its final look. There was considerable public concern that the scenic beauty of the Highlands would be marred by the “tin frumpery” of the bridge. An editorial in the New York Times dated July 20, 1923, entitled “An Infliction of Ugliness on the Hudson” chastised the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Company for its plans to build a bridge “wholly out of accord with the scenery around it and indicative only of a desire on the part of the builders to make it as cheaply as they can.”

In a New York Times article the next day, J.B. White, President of the Palisades Park Commission came to the defense of the bridge design, declaring that the published plans were out of date and that changes to the project were being made. Many argued for the use of masonry towers rather than steel but that would have made the construction deadline impossible to meet. Baird and Hodges, the design engineers, made modifications to the portals to provide a more “tunnel-like” appearance, mimicking the contours of the bridge’s surroundings.
Work on the east highway approach began in April 1923. The road is cut out of the south face of Anthony’s Nose to the east at an elevation of 410 feet above the river. Almost the entire structure of the roadway required excavation and fill. Due to the granite terrain, 70% of the material had to be drilled and blasted. The road was accessible only at the eastern end and to add to the complexity of the construction, the New York Central Railroad tracks where situated directly below 5,000 feet of the highway. This meant that all methods of construction in this section of the highway had to revolve around the continuous and safe operation of the railroad. Just 20 months and four days after the contract was signed, the longest suspension bridge in the world was completed without the loss of a single life.

In 2006, additional support cables were constructed and a supplemental anchorage was embedded into the bedrock on the south side of the bridge. These new cables allow the Bridge Authority to constantly monitor changing conditions.

Stony Point Light House - Stony Point Battlefield

Stony Point, NY

Stony Point Lighthouse, the oldest on the Hudson, marked the entrance to the Hudson Highlands for nearly a hundred years and was built in 1826, the result of a contract between Thomas Phillips, of New York City, and Jonathan Thompson, Superintendent of Lighthouses. The specifications called for the construction of "an octagonal Pyramid, to be built of blue split stone and the best quick lime and sand mortar" to serve as a beacon for the increased river traffic created by the opening of the Erie Canal the previous year. The building plan stated that the tower was to be twenty feet above the water table and have three stories and a cellar for the storage of whale oil. A wooden stairway would lead from the first floor to the second, and a wooden ladder would connect the second floor with the lantern -- the name given to the glass-enclosed top of the lighthouse. On December 1, the lighthouse, complete with copper roof and ventilator, was finished -- at a cost of $3,350.

Included in the price, Phillips also constructed a "dwelling house," the first of three on the site, for the keeper of the light. The keeper was at his (or her) post year-round and often round-the-clock, especially during hazardous weather conditions, performing the primary duty of making sure that the light was on, and that it was properly maintained. This included keeping the oil containers full and the reflectors or lenses clean, and making sure the fog signal operated during inclement weather.

Originally -- though not at Stony Point -- cannons were fired to guide ships through foggy weather when the light was not visible, but in the 19th century, bells came into use. They were rung by hand until devices were created to ring them mechanically. The Stony Point fog bell was installed in a nearby tower in 1857. In 1876, the fog bell was attached to the lighthouse, and in 1890 was moved by the water's edge to another tower with a white light on top. The bell rang every fifteen seconds in foggy weather using a clockwork type mechanism that had to be wound by hand. When the mechanism failed, the bell still had to be rung, occasionally by sledgehammer.
The keepers of Stony Point Lighthouse -- some eight men and women in all -- performed these tasks with dedication and vigilance, with the result that in the lighthouse's period of operation (1826 - 1925), only one vessel ran aground - the steamer Poughkeepsie in March 1901 - with no loss of life.

Different kinds of fuel were developed over the years. Coal and Tallow were used in early European lighthouses, but oil lamps were used in the United States lighthouse system. Whale oil was the standard fuel for many years, but when its price increased, lard oil gradually replaced it. This fuel was used primarily until 1877, when kerosene became available. By the end of the 19th century, electric lights had begun to supersede the oil lamp system.

Lighting methods varied as well and innovations occurred. In 1781, the Argand lamp, which had a hollow, circular wick, was invented, producing an intense, smokeless flame. Later, parabolic reflectors with highly polished surfaces were used to increase the intensity of the lamp and project it toward the water. The light sources were set at a predetermined distance from the center of the reflector, and the light was intensified and focused into a beam. Multiple lamps were used in order to make the light visible over a wide arc. In 1838, the lighting apparatus at Stony Point was listed as having seven lamps with spherical reflectors, arranged on two horizontal tables.

In 1822, however, Augustin Jean Fresnel, a Frenchman, designed a lens that used a number of beveled glass prisms which collected and focused the light rays from the lamp in a horizontal beam, thus greatly magnifying the light's intensity. The result was a system that made other methods obsolete. Fresnel lenses were classified in orders from one to six, the lowest number being the largest and most powerful. First-order lenses were coastal beacons, and sixth-order lenses generally marked minor harbors or river channels. In 1856, the Stony Point Lighthouse received a fifth-order Fresnel lens, which was replaced by a more powerful fourth-order Fresnel lens in 1902.

Different colored lights were used to facilitate identification. The three standard light colors used were white, red and green. A light station might employ any one of the three colors, or two or more colors combined in a pattern called a characteristic. In almost all cases, white was used for lights indicating land because of greater visibility.

Lights were also designated as fixed or flashing. Originally, the Stony Point light was a fixed white beam, projected at an angle of 270 degrees and visible primarily from the south and east. In 1902, the white light on top of the fog bell tower near the shoreline was changed to red, possibly to avoid confusion with the white light from the lighthouse. The present restored light is operated automatically by solar power and uses a period fourth-order Fresnel lens, which projects a flash of light every four seconds.

In 1925 the original lighthouse was decommissioned and replaced by a steel light tower built near the shoreline. The light tower was manually operated until it was automated by the US Coast Guard in 1973. In 1986, the exterior of the lighthouse was repaired, painted and the lantern re-glazed. On October 7, 1995, the lighthouse, with an exhibit, a restored interior, and a period fourth-order Fresnel lens, was reopened to the public and the light activated for the first time in 70 years.

Visiting the Lighthouse
Through the efforts of the Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site, the Palisades Park Interstate Commission, and NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, restoration of the lighthouse began in 1986. The exterior was repaired and painted and the lantern was re-glazed. On October 7, 1995, restoration was complete, and the light was activated for the first time in 70 years. The automatic light, operated by solar power, beams a flash of light once every four seconds.

The lighthouse is open to the public with exhibits, restored interior, and a period fourth-order Fresnel lens. Tours of the lighthouse are available on a regular basis on weekends. Although the lighthouse is relatively short, ascending the steps requires caution as they are extremely steep.Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site is open April 15 to October 21 on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10am until 5pm, Sundays from 1pm till 5pm. Also open on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.