Industry and the Environment

Industry and the Environment. Hudson River Pk. , The Hudson River's dynamic ecosystem and landscape was a dramatic backdrop for the transportation, commerce, and industry that made the region prosperous. However, the economic success of the industrial age also threatened the river. Pre-Civil War tanneries around the location of pier 76 in Manhattan dumped waste into the river, and later, the city's demand for shale threatened the magnificent Palisades escarpment in New Jersey. By the late nineteenth century, some scientists, businessmen, and politicians began to understand our interconnectedness with woods, water, and wildlife., In 1900, New York and New Jersey created the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to protect the southwest shore of the river as a natural and recreational area. Sparked by increasing pollution, twentieth-century Hudson River activists became leaders of the national environmental movements. By taking innovative approaches, scientists and activists continue to create cleaner water in both the Hudson River and New York Harbor., [Captions:] , By the mid-19th Century, the heavy use of the Hudson River Valley for its natural resources was visually apparent. This painting depicts the woodlot that Frederic Church purchased overlooking the Hudson River. He soon re-forested the property, thinking of it as a landscape composition and named it Olana. This site is now a historic site., Unlike the romantic vision offered by Hudson River School painters, New York City's docks were bustling and chaotic. The city's growth and intense use of the river decimated the oyster beds that stabilized the shoreline., To help draw attention to the polluted Hudson River, folk singer Peter Seeger created the Clearwater (right). It sailed to Washington, D.C. for the first Earth Day in 1970.