11 May 2012

The Hudson River at Albany

Did you know that the Hudson River is a tidal estuary at Albany? New York's capital city is 150 miles / 250 km north of New York City and the Atlantic Ocean, yet there is are high and low tides here every day.

On Monday when we went to have a look at the river walk on the Albany riverfront, we saw driftwood floating northward — upstream, in other words. The tide was coming in.

Walt says that when he was growing up in the 1960s and '70s, the river was so polluted that the local people wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, large freeways were built that separated the river from the town, making access to the banks of the Hudson difficult. Nobody cared.

Now the river is much cleaner, if not completely pollution-free. We saw people fishing in its waters. There's a pedestrian bridge over the highways so you can walk from downtown Albany and take a stroll on the river walk.

Yesterday was a very busy day. More about that later. In a few hours, we'll be on the road, headed toward Montréal, which is four hours north of here by car. We'll spend two nights there and then a night in Burlington VT before getting back to Albany Monday evening.

8 comments:

  1. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!! I love Lake Champlain! Take a ferry trip (across to New York and back) -- it's much cheaper than the sight-seeing boats, but a great little trip on the water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Weather is improving - sun rays are seeping through the clouds and the mercury will go up to 17C in the afternoon. Enjoy your four hour road trip

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just to add:

    Bon voyage Cousin

    Last year at this time , we were flying to Paris also for our trip - on that big A380. Now they have one from Dulles also .

    I guess you know who wants to represent your district at the Législatives :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Cousine,

    Thank you for your good wishes.

    You know probably more about French politics than I do. Since I was a civil servant, I wasn’t sure I could vote in France also. So, I didn’t keep track of what was going on there, politically speaking.

    Enjoy the weekend with Ken and Walt. Regards to Yves.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You'll probably be speaking some french this weekend! Enjoy!

    Mary in Oregon

    ReplyDelete
  6. Enjoy Montreal. Some, perhaps a good part, of the credit for making people aware of the need to clean the Hudson goes to Pete Seeger, who at 90-plus is still working for the environment. He lives south of Albany, on the river.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Beaver, here we are in Montréal, at the downtown EconoLodge. The room is perfect. See you tomorrow around 12:30? Let me know if that's not a good time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ken

    12:30 will be fantastic

    I have sent you an e-mail also .

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?