New York’s 400^th Celebration!

We have the rare centennial privilege of celebrating our great state’s 400th anniversary.  2009 marks the dual 400^th anniversaries of the voyage of English Captain Henry Hudson, who led (for the Dutch) the first European expedition to sail up the river that now bears his name, and Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, the first European to gaze upon the waters of the namesake lake. To celebrate these simultaneous quadricentennials – as well as the 200^th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s maiden journey up the Hudson River on the first successful steamboat – New York State and its many communities have planned a yearlong series of events.  Starting from the harbor of the big apple to our state capitol and up to Quebec we are focusing on the commemoration of the Discovery of New York, celebrating our Dutch, French and English roots and heritage.  While we are at it, we are celebrating who we are, unique among other states, with the notable distinction of our embrace of diversity, tolerance and innovation.  Most important of all, we are utilizing all of the state resources and agencies to map out a planned legacy of environmental and economic sustainability so that the 500^th anniversary of New York is assured.  Our slogan:  New York’s 400^th-celebrating the past, planning for the future!

Our planning for the future includes the New York State Quadricentennial Legacy Projects.

The first at Governors Island, the site of one of New York’s first Dutch settlements and a strategic 19th-century coastal fortification.  This legacy project will allow visitors to have access to the entire perimeter promenade for the first time, and will create a park area with unparalleled views of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and the Manhattan skyline. The second, eighty-five miles up the Hudson River, where a world destination will be established when the “Walkway Over the Hudson” finishes the transformation of the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge into a spectacular “park in the sky” linking the river’s two shorelines with a 6,767-foot iron span creating the longest elevated walkway in the world.  On Lake Champlain, the state is finishing a full restoration of the historic Crown Point Lighthouse .  Soon, its beacon will shine again over the stabilized ruins of two nearby forts – Crown Point and St. Frederic – that symbolize the region’s English and French heritage.