Haverstraw Bay, located in New York, is the widest portion of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. The width of Haverstraw Bay is approximately , the length approximately from river kilometer 58 (river mile 36) at Croton Point to river kilometer 66 (river mile 41) at Stony Point. The bay is bordered by the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

Haverstraw Haverstraw is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of the Hudson River. The town runs from the w ...

, in

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

, to the west and the village of

Croton-on-Hudson Croton-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt as part of New York City's northern sub ...

, in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

, to the east.

Geography

Haverstraw Bay is bordered to the west by the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and village of

and to the east by the northern portion of the town of Ossining, village of

and the southern portion of the town of Cortlandt. Haverstraw Bay is approximately 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the north of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. A major feature of the bay is the large peninsula that forms its southern downstream border, Croton Point, which juts almost halfway across the Hudson from the eastern shore. Croton Point Park is a popular birding location, including frequent sightings of the bald eagle. The moderately saline bay is the northern, upstream boundary of the lower Hudson River estuary.

Ecology

The bay's physical and biological characteristics make it one of the most significant estuarine areas in the

. The bay is deeper on its western side with a shipping channel of minimum 32 feet in depth and 300 feet in width. The bay's eastern side is shallower with most of that section of bay not more than 10 feet deep. Shallow depths with ample sunlight lead to robust aquatic vegetation. Inflows of brackish Atlantic Ocean water overlaid with fresh stream water promote a nutrient rich environment for myriad invertebrate, fish, and bird species. The bay's ecology plays a central role in the health of fish populations in the Hudson River, including the endangered

shortnose sturgeon The shortnose sturgeon (''Acipenser brevirostrum'') is a small and endangered species of North American sturgeon. The earliest remains of the species are from the Late Cretaceous Period, over 70 million years ago.National Oceanic and Atmospheri ...

and the larger, more abundant

atlantic sturgeon The Atlantic sturgeon (''Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus'') is a member of the family Acipenseridae and along with other sturgeon it is sometimes considered a living fossil. The Atlantic sturgeon is one of two subspecies of '' A. oxyrinchus'', ...

. New York State has designated Haverstraw Bay a "Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat". Up to the mid-1950s, Haverstraw Bay was once a productive

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

habitat. As with the rest of the Hudson, at the microbial level the bay's health is by oxygen concentrations. The bay's water chemistry is affected rain fall, tidal variations, and human induced waste and runoff, as well as seasonal changes in temperature and light.

History

Sandford Robinson Gifford - Morning in the Hudson

In 1609, the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

had financed

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

navigator

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

to search for the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

. In an attempt to find this undiscovered route, Henry Hudson decided to sail his ship up the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

that would later be named after him (

). As he continued up the river, its width expanded, into Haverstraw Bay, leading him to believe he had successfully reached the Northwest Passage. In 1780, spy Major John André landed at Snedeker's Landing (a.k.a. Waldberg Landing) on the west shore of the bay in the woods below Haverstraw village to meet Benedict Arnold.Adams, Arthur, The Hudson River Guidebook (Fordham University Press, New York, 1996, pp. 146) In 1801,

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

traveled up the Hudson and sketched Stony Point from the bay. The bay appears in the 1975

James Lincoln Collier James Lincoln Collier (born June 29, 1928) is an American journalist, professional musician, jazz commentator, and author. Many of his non-fiction titles focus on music theory and the history of jazz. He and his brother Christopher Collier, a h ...

and Christopher Collier novel, '' My Brother Sam Is Dead''. The bay is currently traversed by NY Waterway's

Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry The Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry is a passenger ferry which connects Haverstraw, New York with Ossining, New York over the Haverstraw Bay and Hudson River. The ferry operates during rush hours on weekdays only, primarily transporting commuters f ...

Tourism

Landmarks and places of Interest

*Rockland County September 11 Memorial at Haverstraw Bay Park.

References

External links

Hudson River Almanac

Testimony on Haverstraw Bay as ecological engine of the Hudson River to NAOA (2002)

Microbial Ecology of the Hudson River Estuary

{{coord, 41, 12, 09, N, 73, 55, 50, W, display=title, type:waterbody Hudson River Bays of New York (state) Bodies of water of Rockland County, New York Bays of Westchester County, New York