In addition to its function as a citadel at the northern end of Manhattan Island, Fort Washington covered the passage up the Hudson River, to which end Fort Lee, erected about the same time directly opposite on the New Jersey bank, also contributed. The committee having iu charge the matter of advising as to fortifying both banks of the Hudson in the neighborhood of the Highlands and obstructing the river navigation paved the way for equally important undertakings in that quarter. Expert commissioners who were sent to examine the country laid stress in their report upon the natural military advantages offered by the northwestern section of Westchester County, which, besides guarding the Highlands, was the eastern terminus of the King's Ferry route (at that time the principal means of communication between the Eastern andSouthern colonies), and also afforded an excellent road leading into Connecticut. The famous chain across the Hudson at Anthony's Nose was soon afterward manufactured. It is said to have cost £70,000, almost bankrupting the continental treasury, whereas no compensating benefits were derived from it. On tw<) occasions it broke from its own weight. The ill-fated Forts Clinton and Montgomery were constructed in the Highlands on the west side of the river, with Fort Constitution on an island opposite West Point. The erection of Fort Lafayette at Yerplanck's Point and Fort Independence at Peekskill (as also of the famous works at Stony Point, opposite Verplanck's)

FROM

JANUARY,

1775,

JULY

0,

belongs to a later period. Of the various Revolutionary fortresses in the Highlands and that section, West Point was built last. In addition to its particular recommendations respecting Kingsbridge, the Highlands, and the Hudson, the continental congress advised New York to have its militia thoroughly armed and trained, and placed in "constant readiness to act at a moment's warning"; and, as a final matter, the colony was summoned to enlist and equip three thousand volunteers, who were to serve until the 31st of December, 1775, unless sooner discharged.