Almost every day of my life, I cross the Hudson River, sometimes several times, sometimes at several points. If I’m feeling devil-may-care, I may throw in a crossing of the Mohawk just for kicks. And if I’m up around Peebles Island, I’m sometimes unsure just what river I’m crossing. Living where we are, we are highly dependent on bridges. But for the first couple hundred years of settlement in these parts, there were no bridges, only ferries.
According to Howell’s “Bi-Centennial History of Albany” etc., the exclusive rights of ferriage across the Hudson between the original four wards of Albany and the opposite shore of Greenbush were granted to Albany by the Dongan Charter of 1686, and that right was later incorporated into the city charter. The “right of ferry” gave the City of Albany the exclusive rights to establishing, licensing and regulating all ferries on each side of the Hudson River between Albany and Greenbush.
The first ferry across the Hudson at Albany was established in 1642, and may have been the first in the United States. On the Albany side, it was just north of the Beverkill, just about where the Dutch Apple and the USS Slater dock today, and crossed directly to Greenbush on the opposite side of the river. The first ferry boat was described as a “rude scow, propelled by hand by means of poles. This was used for the transportation of teams and wagons, while a simple boat or a batteau was employed in carrying passengers. The first ferry-master was Hendrick Albertsen, who built the first ferry house on the Albany side. When he died around 1648, he was succeeded by Jacob Janse Stall. It does not appear that in the early days Albany received any portion of the fares, nor does it appear to have regulated fares until much later. In 1754, the City began the custom of auctioning off the rights to run the ferry, and set the fares:
- For every person, if single 3 coppers
- For every person, if more than one 2 coppers
- For every head of cattle 9 coppers
- For every hundredweight of beaver or skins, 4 coppers
But even by then the beaver trade was diminished, and a new schedule of ferry rates issued in 1786 focused on livestock, furniture, and barrels of rum, sugar and molasses.
Rope ferries were the only kind used at this point (which came to be the South Ferry) until 1817. The boat used was “an ordinary scow, guided by means of a rope stretched across the river, to which the scow was attached by a rope and pulley, the boat being propelled by hand. About this time what was known as the horse ferry-boat came into use at the South Ferry. This kind of boat was peculiar to America, and of most singular construction. A platform covered a wide, flat boat. Underneath the platform was a large, horizontal, solid wheel, which extended to the side of the boat.” Two horses were harnessed on what was essentially a horse treadmill. This craft, devised by a Mr. Langdon of Whitehall, New York, originally used two horses, but larger craft later used as many as twelve at Albany’s South Ferry.