HaverstrawLife.com

Here’s an incredible film (in high speed) of a 1903 trip up the Hudson (the film is incorrectly named “Down the Hudson”) from Haverstraw to Newburgh. Notable sites along the way are Stony Point, the Stony Point Lighthouse and Battlefield, the Bear Mountain “fjord,” West Point, and the waterfront at Newburgh. The trip, probably aboard a steamboat, interestingly spots a few north- and southbound steam trains along the New York Central (West Shore) line. The most shocking part of the film is the scene from Newburgh. Today, the bustling waterfront pictured in the film has been reduced to a wide open lawn (much of Newburgh was torn down in the 1960s). The site is home to a future mega-development that will be sure to transform the City of Newburgh. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Emeline steamship, seen in the final shots of the film. The Emeline famously docked at Emeline Pier (now Emeline Park) in the Village of Haverstraw, and made regular trips north to Newburgh and to various other ports of call on the Hudson.