West Point Foundry Preserve - A walk through history and nature
The 1865 Office Building and Pattern Shop The Hudson River Valley of New York is filled with history. It is also filled with beautiful nature trails to walk. Sometimes these overlap, and a visit to Cold Spring brings just such an experience at the West Point Foundry Preserve . The Village of Cold Spring (50 miles north of New York City) started as a trading post on the Hudson River. It was a place where ships would stop to pick up local produce and lumber and drop off manufactured goods. In the 1820’s, its population of expanded when the West Point Foundry was opened. Cold Spring was a very good place for the foundry. There were local iron mines, forests that provided wood for fuel and charcoal, and a brook that provided power to run the mill. Its established role as a shipping port, and proximity to West Point also were in its favor. The West Point Foundry produced the iron that was used for many things, including the production of the USS Spencer, the first ironclad ship built...