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قراءة كتاب The Greatest Highway in the World Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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The Greatest Highway in the World Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
to something more "distinguished," but the old name could not be displaced.
The story goes that 50 years ago a mass meeting was held in the village at which it was proposed to name the town after one of the captors of Maj. André—either Paulding or Van Wart. The meeting came to nothing when an old resident suggested Wart-on-Hudson.
The strategic position of Dobbs Ferry gave it importance during the War of Independence. It was the rendezvous of the British after the battle of White Plains in Nov. 1775 and a continental division under Gen. Lincoln was stationed here in Jan. 1777. The American army under Washington encamped near Dobbs Ferry on the 4th of July, 1781, and started in the following month for Yorktown, Va., where the final story of the war took place. Two years later (May 6, 1783) Washington and Sir Guy Carleton met at Dobbs Ferry to negotiate for the evacuation of all British troops, and to make terms for the final settlement recognizing American Independence. Their meeting place was the old Van Brugh Livingston house.
Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1792), prominent merchant and Whig political leader in N.Y., was one of the founders of the College of N.J. (now Princeton), and was president of the first Provincial Congress of N.Y. (1775). His brother, William, was the first governor of N.J.
Reception of President Washington at New York, April 23rd, 1789
After the ratifying of the federal constitution, Washington, in 1788, was unanimously elected president. On April 23, 1789, he arrived from Virginia at New York, where he was received with a frenzy of gratitude and praise, and was inaugurated at the Senate hall which stood on the site of the present U.S. Sub-Treasury building. The stone whereon Washington stood when he came out of the house is preserved in the south wall of this building. He is described as wearing suit of homespun so finely woven that "it was universally mistaken for a foreign manufactured superfine cloth." This, of course, was a high tribute to domestic industry.
22 M. IRVINGTON, Pop. 2,701.
(Train 51 passes 9:06; No. 3, 9:25; No. 41, 1:39; No. 25, 3:21; No. 19, 6:11. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:43; No. 26, 9:03; No. 16, 3:21; No. 22, 4:46.)
"Sunnyside," a stone building "as full of angles and corners as a cocked hat"* and situated behind a screen of trees a little north of the station, was the home of Washington Irving, for whom the town was named. First erected by Wolfert Acker in 1656, it was considerably enlarged by Irving in 1835.
War and Merchant Ships of Revolutionary Days
These are authentic pictures, showing actual details, of the ships used by the Americans and British at the time of the Revolutionary War. They were originally engraved for the First Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1768). In the centre is a first rate ship of war, "the noblest machine that ever was invented," to quote the First Edition; and the illustration below shows the interior construction of the hull. It will be noticed that there are three gun decks, below which is the poop, or storage deck. "A common first rate man of war," says the First Edition, "Has its gun deck from 159 to 178 ft. in length, and from 44 to 51 broad. It contains from 1313 to 2000 tons; has from 706 to 1000 men, and carries from 96 to 100 guns. The expense of building a common first rate, with guns, tackling and rigging is computed at 60,000 £ sterling."
The east end is covered with ivy said to be grown from a slip given to Irving when he visited Scott at Abbotsford. At Irvington we come to Tappan Zee (to be seen on the left), where the Hudson widens into a lake-like expanse, 10 M. long and 3 to 4 M. wide. It is a favorite cruising place for ghosts and goblins, according to popular legend.
There is, for example, Rambout van Dam, the roystering youth from Spuyten Duyvil, who was doomed to journey on the river till Judgment Day—all because he started to row home after midnight from a Saturday night quilting frolic at Kakiat. "Often in the still twilight the low sound of his oars is heard, though neither he nor his boat is ever seen." Another phantom that haunts the Tappan Zee is the "Storm Ship," a marvellous boat that fled past the astonished burghers at New Amsterdam without stopping—a flagrant violation of the customs regulation, which caused those worthy officials to fire several ineffectual shots at her.