New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-28
A PALISADES PARK.
THE NEW BILL FOR ITS ESTABLISHMENT
UNDER INTERSTATE CONTROL
lily GOING ON-CO- OPERATION BETWEEN

lily GOING ON-Co- OPERATION BETWEEN
NETWORK AND NEw-JERsEY.
thine your trip up the Hudson so that you
may see the Palisades, line of cliffs bordering
the lower part of the river. These cliffs have
an average height of three hundred feet, and
are formed by the outer top of an inclined sheet
of traprock which dips westward, and was in
truded in a molten condition between layers of
sandstone and shale. 1t was left in relief, owing
to the removal by erosion of the softer beds in
closing it. The trap is columnar, and at the
Palisades breaks to form vertical cliffs"
These the words used in a popular guide
book, and there few similar works in which
the attention of the stranger is not called to the
beauties and grandeur of the cliffs on the west
bank of the Hudson River. They have inspired
poets and artists and are always mentioned
first when the beauties of the Hudson River
spoken of. But for years the rock which forms
the towering cliffs has tempted the man Of bust
ness. Small pieces at first blasted away.
and by degrees great excavations made in
the cliffs Some of the most beautiful points
were ruined. The first inroads made in
hesitatng way, but of late the vandas have be-
bold, and in the face of opposition and
regardless of pleas have torn away great guam
titles of the rock, sacrificing the scenic feature
and converting the stone into paving and build
ing blocks.
THE DEMAND FOR STONE INCREASING.
The demand for broken stone is increasing.
and this together with the increased facilities
for procuring it by means of steam drills and
high explosives, has caused many people inter-
ested in the preservation of the Palisades to
look about for ways and means to check their
destruction. In 1880 commissions were appoint
ed by the Governors of New York and New-Jer-
sey for the purpose of devising some plan by
which the Palisades might be preserved and this
joint Commission recommended that the ground
be acquired for a military park and that the
Palisades be made United States reservation
With this end in view it was also suggested that
$250000 be appropriated by the State of New
York for the purchase of Palisades land.
This scheme found to be impracti-
cable and did not receive much serious consider
alton The steam drill kept at work, and the
mountains shook when great fields of rock were
displaced by giant charges of high explosives
and there seemed to be way to check the de-
Etruction.
Last year Governor Roosevelt was asked to
request the New York Society for the Preserya-
ton of Scenic and Historic Places and Objects to
interest itself in the matter and to make some
recommendations the subject The society
responded promptly, and its president Andrew
II. Green, appointed the following committee;
Frederick ". Devoe, Frederick S. Lamb George
f. Kunz, Edward Payson Cone and Colonel A.
C. Mills. The name of Mr.. Green was added as
honorary member.
JOINT MEETING OF THE COMMITTEES.
Interest in the matter was revived in Now
,$rsey, and the Legislature passed an act an
5lntlng the following persons to act with the
&ew-York committee: Franklin Hopkins, Eliza
beth Vermilye. Mrs John Holland s. Woods
McClave and w. A. Linn. Mrs, VermiIye repre-
Eented the Federation of Womens Clubs on