The leaves are starting to change in Park City, Utah, as the official start to fall arrives. See the beautiful fall foliage spotted in the mountains! Leisurely autumn leaf-peeping and the drama of American independence are linked together in a historical hunt along the Hudson River in New York. The fall-tinted scenic drive could reveal remnants of an iron-clad testament to patriotism , American industrial spirit and the defiant derring-do of the upstart new nation.
Continental troops, under the orders of Gen. George Washington, linked an iron chain across the width of the Hudson River near West Point. It weighed 65 to 75 tons, according to multiple sources.
ROSH HASHANAH PROMPTS MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE TO DISPLAY OLDEST JEWISH BOOK IN THE WORLD The iron barrier was designed to keep the almighty British navy from controlling the critical waterway and severing rebellious New England from the rest of the American colonies. "I would call the chain an engineering marvel for its time," Dan Davis, senior education manager of the American Battlefield Trust in Washington, D.C.
, told Fox News Digital. What has been preserved of the Great Chain is located at Trophy Point at West Point, N.Y.
The display consists of 13 links of the chain (one for each original state), one swivel and one clevis. The signature "S curve" of the Hudson, which made West Point so defensible, is in the background. (Public domain) "Not only was it an engineering marvel, it made West Point a nearly impenetrable posit.