| The Palisades | |
|---|---|
 The cliffs of the Palisades as seen from the Ross Dock Picnic Area inPalisades Interstate Park | |
 Interactive map of The Palisades | |
| Location | Northeastern New Jersey (Hudson andBergen counties) Downstate New York (Rockland County) |
| Coordinates | 40°57′52″N73°54′31″W / 40.96451°N 73.90859°W /40.96451; -73.90859 |
| Designated | 1983 |
The Palisades, also called theNew Jersey Palisades or theHudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lowerHudson River inNortheastern New Jersey andSoutheastern New York in theUnited States. The cliffs stretch north fromJersey City about 20 miles (32 km) to nearNyack, New York, and are visible atHaverstraw, New York. They rise nearly vertically from near the edge of the river, and are about 300 feet (90 m) high atWeehawken, increasing gradually to 540 feet (160 m) high near their northern terminus.[1] North ofFort Lee, the Palisades are part ofPalisades Interstate Park and are aNational Natural Landmark.[2]
The Palisades are among the most dramaticgeologic features in the vicinity ofNew York City, forming acanyon of the Hudson north of theGeorge Washington Bridge, as well as providing a vista of theManhattanskyline. They sit in theNewark Basin, a rift basin located mostly in New Jersey.
Palisade is derived from the same root as the wordpole, ultimately from the Latin wordpalus, meaning stake. A "palisade" is, in general, a defensive fence or wall made up of wooden stakes or tree trunks. TheLenape called the cliffs "rocks that look like rows of trees", a phrase that became "Weehawken", the namesake of a town in New Jersey that sits at the top of the cliffs across fromMidtown Manhattan.
Thebasalt cliffs are the margin of adiabasesill, formed about 200 million years ago,[3] at the close of theTriassic period, by the intrusion of moltenmagma upward intosandstone.[4] The molten material cooled and solidified before reaching the surface. Water erosion of the softer sandstone left behind the columnar structure of harder rock that exists today. The cliffs are about 300 ft (100 m) thick in sections and originally may have reached 1,000 ft (300 m).
The end-Triassic extinction event that coincided with the formation of the Hudson Palisades,Central Atlantic magmatic province, 200 million years ago ranks second in severity of the five major extinction episodes that span geologic time.[4][5]
Franklyn Van Houten completed groundbreakingresearch on a rock formation known as theNewark Basin. His discovery of a consistent geological pattern in which lake levels rose and fell is now known as the "Van Houten cycle".[6][7][8][9]
The Palisades appear on the first European map of the New World, made byGerardus Mercator in 1541 based on the description given him byGiovanni da Verrazzano,[10] who suggested they look like a "fence of stakes".[11]
During the early stages of the American Revolution, British military commanderLord Cornwallis landed a force of between 2,500 and 5,000 at Huyler's Landing on November 20, 1776.[12][13] In an effort to ambush American generalGeorge Washington and crush the rebellion in the wake of the rebels' defeat in the Battle of Long Island and theBattle of Fort Washington, Cornwallis marched his men up the steep Palisades and southward through the Northern Valley. Washington, stationed near Fort Lee, was alerted to the ambush effort by an unknown horseback patriot, remembered only as the Closter Rider, and successfully fled west throughEnglewood and over theHackensack River, avoiding capture in what is remembered as Washington's Retreat.[14][15]
The Palisades were the site of 18 documentedduels and probably many unrecorded ones in the years 1798–1845. The most famous is theBurr–Hamilton duel betweenAlexander Hamilton andAaron Burr, which took place in a spot known as theHeights of Weehawken on July 11, 1804.[16]
An English visitor,Fanny Trollope, in her 1832 bookDomestic Manners of the Americans, wrote of a park established at the Palisades by a Hoboken ferryboat entrepreneur at that time:
It is hardly possible to imagine one of greater attraction; a broad belt of light underwood and flowering shrubs, studded at intervals with lofty forest trees, runs for two miles along a cliff which overhangs the matchless Hudson; sometimes it feathers the rocks down to its very margin, and at others leaves a pebbly shore, just rude enough to break the gentle waves, and make a music which mimics softly the loud chorus of the ocean. Through this beautiful little wood, a broad well gravelled terrace is led by every point which can exhibit the scenery to advantage; narrower and wilder paths diverge at intervals, some into the deeper shadow of the wood, and some shelving gradually to the pretty coves below.The price of entrance to this little Eden, is the six cents you pay at the ferry.[17]
After the Civil War, signs advertisingpatent medicines and other products covered the rock face in letters 20 feet (6.1 m) high.[18]
In the 19th century, the cliffs were heavily quarried forrailroadballast, leading to local efforts to preserve them. Beginning in the 1890s, several unsuccessful efforts were made to turn much of the Highlands into a forest preserve. Fearing that they would soon be put out of business, quarry operators responded by working faster: in March 1898 alone, more than three tons of dynamite was used to bring down Washington Head and Indian Head inFort Lee, New Jersey, producing several million cubic yards of traprock. The following year,[10] work by the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs led to the creation of thePalisades Interstate Park Commission, headed byGeorge W. Perkins, which was authorized to acquire land betweenFort Lee andPiermont, New York. Its jurisdiction was extended toStony Point, New York in 1906.
In 1908, theState of New York announced plans to moveSing Sing Prison toBear Mountain. Work was begun in the area near Highland Lake (renamed Hessian Lake) and in January 1909, the state purchased the 740-acre (3.0 km2) Bear Mountain tract. Conservationists, inspired by the work of thePalisades Interstate Park Commission, lobbied successfully for the creation of the Highlands of the Hudson Forest Preserve. However, the prison project was continued.Mary Williamson Averell, whose husband, Union Pacific Railroad presidentE. H. Harriman died in September of that year, offered the state another 10,000 acres (40 km2) and one million dollars toward the creation of a state park.
George Walbridge Perkins, who served as president of thePalisades Interstate Park Commission from its creation in 1900 until his death in 1920, with whom she had been working, raised another $1.5 million from a dozen wealthy contributors includingJohn D. Rockefeller andJ. P. Morgan.New York State appropriated a matching $2.5 million and the state ofNew Jersey appropriated $500,000 to build the Henry Hudson Drive (which would be succeeded by thePalisades Parkway in 1947). Ultimately, theSing Sing relocation was discontinued.
In the 1910s, whenFort Lee was a center of film production, the cliffs were frequently used as film locations. The most notable of these films wasThe Perils of Pauline, aserial which helped popularize the termcliffhanger.[19]
In October 1931, after four years of construction, theGeorge Washington Bridge opened betweenUpper Manhattan and Fort Lee.
On April 28, 1940, the Boy Scout Foundation of Greater New York announced the donation of 723 acres byJohn D. Rockefeller Jr. to establish a weekend camp for New York City Boy Scouts.[20]
In June 1983, the Palisades were designated aNational Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.[21]
On May 12, 2012, a 10,000 tonrockfall just south of the state line left a 520-foot (160 m) scar on the cliffs.[18]
The Palisades is now a part ofPalisades Interstate Park, a popular destination forhiking and other outdoor recreational activities, that also includesHarriman-Bear Mountain State Park,Minnewaska State Park Preserve and several other parks and historic sites in the region.
On June 23, 2015, officials of theSouth Korean conglomerateLG Group announced that their planned new North American headquarters building inEnglewood Cliffs, New Jersey, which was originally designed to be 143 feet (44 m) tall, and would have broken the tree line on top of the Palisades, would be reduced to 69 feet (21 m) in height, thus preserving the contour of the ridge. The new building had been opposed by numerous conservation groups and politicians, including four former governors of New Jersey.[22]
![The Palisades, with fall foliage. On the left is the George Washington Bridge. A controversial plan to build a high-rise that would have broken the tree line was proposed, and later modified, by LG Electronics.[22]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aNJPalisades.JPG)
Year designated: 1983
