Riverside Park was a respite from the pressure of school and work and the chaos of living in the City. Memories of walking and biking along the Hudson River are among the strongest from those three years.
Those rides played a critical role in my next twenty years as they helped to inspire me in my work, that included helping to create and manage the growth of the Friends of the Riverfront in Pittsburgh.
But mine was only one of the infinite personal stories of individual connections to water and rivers. European connection to the Hudson River started in 1609 with Henry Hudson journey on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Twenty years after we started our bike ride by heading upriver on the banks of the Hudson, New York City would celebrate the 400th anniversary of this trip with many events and exhibits, including the New York Public Library's exhibition of images of the Hudson River itself.
Shortly after leaving the apartment and heading north we passed Grant's Tomb and the Riverside Church. I learned almost twenty years later as I delved into family history that I had at least four great-great uncles that fought for General Grant (perhaps I should only say three as sadly one Uncle died in 1862 at the Seven DAys Battle outside of Richmond Virginia, before Ulysses Grant was the General) and I had a Great Aunt who worked at the Presbytery housed at the Church. But those are storeis for another blog someday.
We crossed the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge located at the approximate site that General Washington built forts in 1776 in the futile effort to hold the British army within Hudson Bay. It can also be noted that Alexander Hamilton meant his demise in a duel on the New Jersey shoreline below the Palisades in a duel with Aaron Burr.
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