Following this road a few rods farther down the heights, we reach the station-house of the Hudson River Railway, which stands at the southern entrance to a deep rock excavation through a point of Mount Washington, known for a hundred years or more as Jeffrey's Hook. This point has an interesting revolutionary history in connection with Mount Washington. At the beginning of the war, the great value, in a strategic point of view, of Manhattan Island, and of the river itself -- in its entire length to Fort Edward -- as a dividing line between New England and the remainder of the colonies, was fully appreciated by the contending parties. The

3 c

THE HUDSON.

Ameiicans adopted measures early to secure these, by erecting fortifications. Mount AVashiugton (so named at that time) was the most elevated land upon the island, and formidable military "worlvs of earth and stone were

VIEW ON WASHINGTONtHEIGHTS.

soon erected upon its crown and upon the heights in the vicinity from Manhattanville to Kingsbridge. The principal work was Fort Washington. The citadel was on the crown of Mount Washington, overlooking the

THE HUDSON.

country in every direction, and comprising within the scope of vision the Hudson from the Highlands to the harbour of New York. The citadel, with the outworks, covered several acres between One Hundred and Eighty-first and One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Streets.

On the point of the chief promontory of Mount Washington jutting into the Hudson, known as Jeffery's Hook, a strong redoubt was