Names
The river was called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan, by the Iroquois, and it was known as Muhheakantuck ("river that flows two ways") by the Lenape tribe who inhabited both banks of the lower portion of the river - all of present day New Jersey and the island of Manhattan.
An early name for the Hudson used by the Dutch was "Rio de Montaigne". Later, they generally termed it the "North River", the Delaware River being known as the "South River." The name "North River" was used in the New York City area up until the early 1900s, with limited use continuing until modern times. The term persists in radio communication among commercial shipping traffic, especially below Tappan Zee.
Read more about this topic: Hudson River
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Tonight there are only the winter stars.
The sky is no longer a junk-shop,
Full of javelins and old fire-balls,
Triangles and the names of girls.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)