Route Descriptions: New England
Route descriptions courtesy of Mark Hansen Troy to Brattleboro, Vermont : The namesake of the Hudson River was the English explorer Henry Hudson. In 1609, he sailed the Halve Maen (“Half Moon”) 125 miles up the river to Kinderhook – which he named – and continued in the ship’s boat to today’s Troy, another 20 miles. He was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, hence the name of his ship. The Dutch merchants had hired him to search for a supposed Northwest Passage to the Orient. It made a certain amount of sense for Hudson to consider the river as a possibility – the slow-flowing Hudson is tidal as far as Troy – but it did not prove to be. His voyage, however, was a basis for the Dutch claim (asserted in 1614) to the American colony it called New Netherland. The ride route follows the river north until opposite Waterford, the origin of the New York State Canal. It turns east on Plank Rd: in the early 19th century, roads were planked – decked with wood over stringer beams – fo