The Hudson River at Fort Edward

The Hudson River at Fort Edward. Present Day. , Historically, the Hudson River has proven to be a valuable source of power for manufacturing purposes. The General Electric Company (GE) established a manufacturing plant, which originally produced parts for World war II bombers. After the war, the GE plants in both Hudson Falls and Fort Edward began to produce electrical capacitors and transformers, both of which used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a coolant., In the course of 30 years, GE , along with several paper companies, released 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River. This was a legal act until 1977, when the United States Federal Government prohibited any further use of PCBs due to health concerns. In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a clean-up of the Hudson River between the towns of Fort Edward and Tory, NY. GE has committed itself to the removal of PCBs with its dredging project that began in 2008., Interestingly, GE's dredging project has facilitated major archaeological discoveries. Timbers from the an eighteenth century fortification, along with other artifacts, were extricated during the dredging process. It was later determined by archaeologists that these timbers were from the water bastion of the original Fort Edward, the construction of which began in 1755. These timbers and artifacts can now be seen at the the Rogers Island Visitor Center in Fort Edward., The future of the Hudson River should be extremely positive as a tourist area for people who boat and cruise the Champlain Canal system. Hopefully, the fishing will resume in the river, along with travel by kayak and canoes to explore the Hudson River Valley. Today, many yachts use Fort Edward Terminal, now called the Fort Edward Yacht Basin, and the docks oat Old Fort House Museum and Rogers Island as a stop-over. This helps boost local businesses during the warm weather months.