Henry Hudson Parkway

Harlem River to the Saw Mill River Pkwy

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

On September 2, 1609, Henry Hudson (d. 1611), an Englishman, directed the crew of his Dutch ship, Halve Maen (Half Moon), to drop anchor in the lower bay of what is now the New York Harbor. The Dutch East India Company had hired him to find a sea route through North America to the riches of the Far East, a hypothetical route known as the Northwest Passage. The ship sailed up the river that now bears his name, docking off Spuyten Duyvil. They attempted to travel even further upstream before abandoning the quest, realizing that the river was narrowing. Hudson’s last voyage was in 1611 when after discovering Hudson’s Bay and claiming it for England, his crew mutinied and cast him and his son John (1591-1611) adrift, leaving them to die. Almost two centuries after Hudson’s historic voyage, inventor Robert Fulton (1765-1815) introduced the world to steam navigation as he piloted the North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont) up the Hudson R…

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