Breakneck Brook

Add links
Coordinates: 41°26′18″N 73°58′25″W / 41.43833°N 73.97361°W / 41.43833; -73.97361
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Breakneck Brook
Breakneck Valley Brook
Town
Philipstown
Physical characteristics
SourceSurprise Lake
 • locationPhilipstown
 • coordinates41°27′23″N 73°57′17″W / 41.45639°N 73.95472°W / 41.45639; -73.95472
 • elevation711 ft (217 m)
MouthHudson River
 • location
S of Storm King
 • coordinates
41°26′18″N 73°58′25″W / 41.43833°N 73.97361°W / 41.43833; -73.97361
 • elevation
10 ft (3.0 m)
Length1.7 mi (2.7 km), SW

Breakneck Brook, sometimes Breakneck Valley Brook,

town of Philipstown, New York, United States. It rises at Surprise Lake and flows southwest towards the Hudson from there, mostly through Hudson Highlands State Park. The name comes from Breakneck Ridge
to its north.

Two of the park's hiking trails parallel Breakneck Brook for much of its course. Most of the land the brook flows through was once part of the estate of Edward G. Cornish, chairman of the

National Lead Company in the early 20th century. He established a large dairy farm on the property, and ruins of structures built for that purpose, including a large cistern, are still visible along the stream.[3]

Geography

The Breakneck flows relatively straight in a southwest direction from its source to its mouth, draining the small and narrow valley between two of the higher mountains in the Hudson Highlands. Most of its 701-foot (214 m) vertical drop takes place in its lower half-mile (800 m).[4]

Course

The brook begins flowing from the outlet of the dam at the southwest end of Lake Surprise, an artificial lake established in the early 20th century to support a small summer camp built around it. It descends gently at first, losing only 40 feet (12 m) from its starting elevation of 711 feet (217 m) in the quarter-mile (400 m) from its source to the boundary between the camp property and Hudson Highlands State Park. The mostly wooded camp property gives way to fully wooded state parkland.[4]

An unpaved road parallels the brook to its northwest. Shortly after it crosses onto state land the blue-

reservoir for the dairy farm that once operated in this area. It is only 60 feet (18 m) lower than the stream was at the park boundary.[4]

A tenth of a mile (160 m) to the southwest, Breakneck Brook receives an unnamed tributary that flows down from a wetland to the northeast, 300 feet (91 m) above the confluence. Just below, at the ruin of an outbuilding for the dairy farm,[6] the Notch Trail and wood road crosses the brook at a bridge also dating from the dairy farm era. Shortly afterwards, at a Y-shaped junction, the Notch Trail follows the other branch of the Y toward the mountain on the other side of the stream's valley, Bull Hill. Red blazes for the Brook Trail[5] take over on the woods road as it continues downhill alongside the stream.[4]

The road/trail and stream continue another 0.1 mile to 500 feet (150 m) in elevation. Here, at the narrowest point of the col between the two mountains, Breakneck Brook begins to descend more steeply. A pump house that once tapped the stream for Cornish's mansion remains.[7] At a wooden bridge marks the crossing of the yellow-blazed Undercliff Trail, which connects the trail systems on the two mountains.[5] A quarter-mile from here, it has already dropped 200 feet (61 m), mostly in a series of small cascades, to where it crosses the Catskill Aqueduct of New York City's water supply system, at a small rock cistern. The Brook Trail, now a footpath as the woods road has turned to the southeast to become the Cornish Estate Trail, near the ruins of the former mansion, continues to parallel closely.[4]

Another quarter-mile covers most of the remaining 300 feet (91 m) of vertical drop. At 100 feet (30 m) in elevation, another unnamed tributary comes down from Bull Hill. The Brook Trail ends at its small trailhead on

Empire Service, as well as occasional CSX freights.[4]

Watershed

Breakneck Brook's watershed is small. It extends to the ridgelines of the two mountains it sits between, 1,280-foot (390 m) Breakneck Ridge to the north and 1,420-foot-tall (430 m) Bull Hill, the highest point in it, to the south. Although at one point on the former peak it nearly crosses the Dutchess County line into the neighboring town of Fishkill, it remains entirely within Philipstown and Putnam County.[8]

A narrow lake with buildings on the far side in woods just starting to green with the spring, seen down the slope of a mountain
Surprise Lake and the camp

On the north it is bordered by the watershed of an unnamed stream that flows down from between Breakneck Ridge and

reservoir almost a mile (1.6 km) away to drain into the Hudson just south of Cold Spring, bounding the Breakneck Brook watershed on the east and southeast in the process. A very small portion of the watershed on its south borders on the Hudson's direct drainage from the steep western slope of Bull Hill.[4]

The watershed is almost entirely wooded. Most of the lower portion is within Hudson Highlands State Park, where the only development regularly used since the dairy farm was abandoned are the hiking trails. At the upper end, the camp is the most significant development within the watershed, but it is not used year-round, so the watershed has no permanent population.[4]

History

Like most of the

last glacial period is known in North America. To the immediate west of the brook's valley, the glaciers forced the Hudson River through the nascent Appalachian Mountains, resulting in the present fjord and pressuring and scouring the mountains alongside it. Ice covered the entire area, with the creeks forming as it melted 20,000 years ago.[9]

Human use of the brook began at the start of the 20th century, when

headwaters and dammed the brook to create Surprise Lake Camp, where Jewish boys from the Lower East Side of Manhattan could get away from the city during the summer. Its early alumni included Eddie Cantor, who later said it was at the camp that he realized he wanted to be an entertainer. After going through several organizational parents in its first decades, the camp assumed control of its own affairs in the late 1920s.[10]

During the camp's early years,

National Lead Company, one of the group of 30 companies whose share prices comprised the initial Dow Jones Industrial Average. Cornish and his wife moved in during 1916 and named the estate Northgate.[11]

That same year the Catskill Aqueduct was completed through the property and across the brook. On the section above it, Cornish and his wife decided to establish a model dairy farm. They cleared the land and built bridges, a barn and other facilities along the brook. Farther upstream, they built another dam to provide water for the dairying operation.[11] Local newspapers carried regular accounts of the record-breaking production the Cornishes' cows achieved.[12]

Despite the fact that it was responsible for their own home, the Cornishes grew concerned about the effect of quarrying on the Highlands. The mass of

deed restrictions that would have forbidden any commercial exploitation of the property, and in any event he considered the land too rugged and unsuited to the intensive use the parks he had developed were intended for.[11]

Two years later, Cornish died at his desk in Manhattan; his wife followed him two weeks later. Their heirs, battling over the estate in court, did not move into the property and were not as diligent in maintaining it. As a result, it began to show the signs of neglect, and in 1956 a fire gutted the mansion. Six years later, the remaining heirs sold the land to Central Hudson Gas & Electric, the Mid-Hudson's major

kilowatt pumped storage power generating station on it.[13]

But, in the face of opposition aroused by the larger power plant proposed by

Fishkill.[5]

The ruins of the estate remained, making the trails in the area a popular destination for hikers. All continued to deteriorate as reforestation continued. The dam in particular began to fail and leak. In 2011 OPRHP removed it, finding it too expensive to repair. It told the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that doing so would also be beneficial as "it will result in the restoration of the original streambed and riparian area."[14]

Geology

The Breakneck Brook valley runs parallel to some of the faults in that area of Philipstown, along with Foundry Brook, the Hudson tributary to the immediate south. Bedrock in the valley is primarily pyroxene-rich gneiss, while nearer the mountain summits it is more anorthosite-rich granitic gneiss. The latter is especially resistant to weathering and erosion, resulting not only in the height of the peaks but the steep cliffs and slopes below them.[9]

The faults were steepened by glacial pressures as the

glacial till in the higher elevations, and a layer of kame-like water-sorted sediments topped with till closer to the brook.[9]

Hydrology

The United States Geological Survey treats Breakneck Brook and the similarly small tributaries to its north in Dutchess County as a single watershed for data purposes. DEC follows the federal lead in its own data,[1] but classifies streams separately for regulatory purposes. Under those regulations, the entire brook and Surprise Lake are considered Class B waters,[15] suitable for primary and secondary contact recreation, and fishing.[16]

While Class B waters are not considered hazardous to aquatic life, it is unlikely to harbor any fish species commonly found in the river. In a 2006 paper on the role of the tributaries in shaping the river's fish population, Robert Schmidt of

Simon's Rock College and DEC biologist Thomas Lake expressed doubt that any river fish ventured into tributaries like Breakneck Brook distinguished by steep drops they took just before reaching the river. "They have probably been inaccessible to Hudson River fishes since the glacial lakes filling the Hudson Valley drained," the authors wrote.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Lower Hudson River Basin Waterbody Inventory and Priority Waterbodies List" (PDF). New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. August 2008. p. 214. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  2. ^ "Breakneck Brook". Geoview.info. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  3. ISBN 9781594850448
    .
  4. ^
    U.S. Geological Survey
    . Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  5. ^
    ISBN 9781880775547
    .
  6. ^ Chazin, Daniel (December 11, 2011). "Bull Hill (Mt. Taurus) via Washburn/Notch/Brook/Cornish Trail Loop". New York–New Jersey Trail Conference. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  7. ISBN 9780813565866
    .
  8. ^ The Chazen Companies (June 2007). "Town of Philipstown Groundwater Report and Planning Resource" (PDF). Town of Philipstown. p. 58. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  9. ^ a b c Groundwater Report, 12
  10. ^ "History". Surprise Lake Camp. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9781584655985
    .
  12. ^ Yasinsac, Robert J. (2010). "Northgate (Stern/Cornish Estate)". HudsonValleyRuins.org. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  13. ^ J. Robert Folchetti & Associates LLC (September 2007). "Greenway Grant Feasibility Study" (PDF). Town of Philipstown. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  14. ^ "ENB – Region 3 Notices 1/05/2011". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. January 5, 2011. Archived from the original on May 15, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  15. ^ "New York State Code of Rules and Regulations, Part 862.6: Table I Classifications and Standards of Quality and Purity Assigned to Fresh Surface Waters Within Drainage Basins of Streams Entering the Hudson River in Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, and Putnam Counties, Except Rondout Creek below Rondout Reservoir, Esopus Creek below Ashokan Reservoir, Wappinger Creek, Waters Contained Within Boundaries of State-owned Forest Preserve Lands and Those Portions of Various Waters in Said Basins for Which Standards Have Been Previously Adopted by the Water Resources Commission". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Retrieved June 17, 2014.
  16. ^ "New York State Code of Rules and Regulations, Part 701.7: Class B fresh waters". NYSDEC. January 17, 2008. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  17. ISBN 9780521844789
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breakneck_Brook&oldid=1038040071"