05/21/17 Sunday Nyack, NY to Croton on Hudson, NY - West Point Army Academy

Left early Sunday to travel the 15 miles up to Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton on Hudson. The plan was to stay a couple of days, re-provision, take a trip to West Point Army Academy, and go back to NYC for the tours of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Was able to get setup at the marina early enough to take the trip up to West Point on Sunday. The note worthy hiccup of the day happened when I tried to get back to the marina. Enterprise car rental wasn't open on Sunday, so I thought I would try Uber. Everything went fine on the trip to West Point (30 miles). When I tried to return, Uber sends a message that they don't service that area. An $80 taxi ride back was the only choice!

Croton on Hudson is sort of a small bay several miles in diameter. From that point North, the river narrows to between a quarter and a half mile across. The view From my slip across the bay was of this hill / mountain ridge. Very Nice and very protected.

West Point, inside the Cadet Chapel.

The Chapel has the largest (most pipes) pipe organ in North America. The switches at the organ console is mind numbing.

Trophy Point over looks the Hudson river. From the revolutionary war on, captured cannons were brought back here for the cadets to train with and later to display as conquests. There are a lot of cannons here! The first picture is of the civil war memorial. All the graduates and faculty of both sides, who died during the war are listed here. Of the 65 major battles of the war, 60 battles had a West point graduate leading the battle on each side.

West Point is located on the only S turn in the river where it's narrow. Washington's planners realized that preventing the British from sailing supplies down the weather protected river was critical to winning the war. So in the S turn where the ships would slow down, he had a chain stretched across the river below the surface, to tear the bottoms out of the ships. West Point and a small fort on the other side were constructed to provide cover fire for the chain. The British quickly gave up the Hudson as a supply route.

The upper part of the S

The lower part of the S

13 links (1 for each colony) of the chain were saved to be displayed here on trophy point.

Will have more pictures of West Point when I go by it by boat. If you ever find yourself in this area, take the tour and visit the museum. Absolutely amazing!

Ted