Henry Hudson - Legacy

Legacy

The gulf or bay discovered by Hudson is twice the size of the Baltic Sea, and its many large estuaries afford access to otherwise landlocked parts of Western Canada and the Arctic. This allowed the Hudson's Bay Company to exploit a lucrative fur trade along its shores for more than two centuries, growing powerful enough to influence the history and present international boundaries of Western North America. Hudson Strait became the entrance to the Arctic for all ships engaged in the search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic side.

The Hudson River in New York and New Jersey, explored earlier by Hudson, is named after him, as are Hudson County, New Jersey, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the town of Hudson, New York.

He, along with his marooned crewmates, appear as mythic characters in the famous story "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. He also appears in the time-travel novel Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix.