History and government in the Hudson Valley

As the first great "highway'' into the vast untapped wilderness of the New World, the Hudson Valley soon became home to the political, cultural and business leaders of New Amsterdam, New York and later, a new nation. Their great estates still line the river from Yonkers to Albany, beckoning you to experience what life was like in those times.

The battlefields of White Plains, Stony Point, Fort Clinton, Fort Montgomery and Saratoga, along with Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh (the first designated historic site in America) and Continental Army encampments at New Windsor and Fishkill, recall the struggle for American independence. Most, if not all, of our greatest military leaders have passed through the portals of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

A list of famous Hudson valley residents reads like a "Who's Who" of American history -- U.S. presidents Martin Van Buren and Franklin Delano Roosevelt; vice-presidents (and former governors) George Clinton, Levi Morton and Nelson Rockefeller; statesmen like Robert Livingston and Averill Harriman; author Washington Irving, inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, artist Frederic Edwin Church, philanthropist Matthew Vassar and many, many more. All live on in a host of museums and mansions throughout the valley.

All of this in a setting of such great natural beauty that the Hudson River has been called "The Rhine of America.''