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New York State Route 308 (NY 308) is a 6.19 miles (9.96 km) long state highway located entirely in northern Dutchess County, New York. It serves mainly as a shortcut for traffic from the two main north-south routes in the area, US 9 and its alternative route NY 9G, to get to NY 199 and the Taconic State Parkway. A portion of NY 308 is located along the Rhinebeck Village Historic District, a 1,670 acre (6.7 km²) historic district containing 272 historical structures. The route was designated as part of the 1930 renumbering and originally extended from Milan, westward to Rhinecliff. The route was truncated to US 9 in the 1960s. The highway was also to be part of the then-new Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge until plans were changed to involve other routes, and the building site for the bridge was moved about 3 mi (4.8 km) northward. The bridge opened to the public on February 2, 1957. In 1802, the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike was charted to run from Rhincliff, westward to Bainbridge (then known as Jericho). On the Dutchess County side, the turnpike followed a path of what is now part of NY 308



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The Hunter Mountain Fire Tower is located on the summit of the eponymous mountain, second highest of the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It was the first of 23 fire lookout towers built by the state in the region, and the next-to-last of the five still standing to be abandoned. Today it remains a popular attraction for hikers climbing the mountain. After it fell into disrepair in the 1990s and was recommended for removal by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which had operated the tower, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Local enthusiasts were able to raise money, matched by DEC, to restore the tower and adjacent observer's cabin to serve as a museum, with volunteers in the cab on some weekends.

Panoramic views of not only the mountains but the adjacent Hudson Valley, Massachusetts, Connecticut and sometimes southwestern Vermont are available from it. Likewise, it can be seen from many of the surrounding mountains, the village of Hunter and the upper slopes of the ski area. It is the highest fire tower still standing in the state and the second-highest in the entire Northeast. (More)



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The Shawangunk Ridge (also known as the Shawangunk Mountains, or The Gunks; pronounced by some locals as "SHONG-gum," (/ˈʃɑŋgʌm/)) is a ridge of mountains in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of New Jersey to the Catskill Mountains.

The ridgetop, which widens considerably at its northern end, has many public and private protected areas and is not heavily populated, boasting only one settlement of consequence (unincorporated Cragsmoor). While in the past it was chiefly noted for huckleberry picking, and the fires set to create favorable conditions for further growth, today it has become known for its outdoor recreation, most notably as one of the major rock climbing areas of North America. Also known for its biodiversity and scenic character, the ridge has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as one of the "75 Last Great Places on Earth." (More...)



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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a nonsectarian private research university located in Troy, New York. RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world. The institute is known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. RPI's mission has slowly evolved over the years while retaining its focus on the scientific and technological roots upon which the school was founded. Adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1995, RPI's current mission is to "educate the leaders of tomorrow for technologically based careers. We celebrate discovery, and the responsible application of technology, to create knowledge and global prosperity." Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School November 5, 1824 with a letter to Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees. On December 29 of that year, the president and the board met and established the methods of instruction, which were rather different from methods employed at other colleges at the time.



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New York State Route 22 is a north-south state highway in New York paralleling the eastern edge of the state, from the outskirts of New York City to the Canadian border. At almost 341 miles (549 km) in total length, it is the longest north-south route in the state and currently the third longest overall, after NY 5 and NY 17. Many of the state's major east-west roads intersect with Route 22 just before crossing the state line into the neighboring New England states. With the exception of its southern end, in the heavily-populated Bronx and lower Westchester County, as well as in the city of Plattsburgh near the northern end, almost all of Route 22 is a two-lane rural road that passes only through small villages and hamlets. The rural landscape off the road varies from horse country and views of the large reservoirs of the New York City watershed in the northern suburbs of city, to dairy farms further upstate in the hilly Taconics and Berkshires, to the undeveloped, heavily forested Adirondack Park along the shores of Lake Champlain. An 86-mile (138 km) section from Fort Ann to Keeseville is part of the All-American Road known as the Lakes to Locks Passage.



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Stony Clove Notch is a narrow pass, roughly 2,220 feet (677 m) in elevation located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, deep in the Catskill Mountains. It is traversed by New York State Route 214, although in the past the Ulster and Delaware Railroad went through it as well. The notch divides Hunter and Plateau mountains. There is just enough room for the road, and the steep, soaring slopes of both mountains are some of the Catskills' most striking scenery, with landslides and rocky cliffs visible. It sits at one end of the range of mountains known as the Devil's Path, and early visitors found it a terrifying place to visit. Today it is a popular destination not only for tourists in the region but for outdoor recreationists as well. One of the Catskills' major hiking trails crosses the road near the notch, and ice climbers and snowboarders have lately been attracted to the cliffs and slopes in winter. Stony Clove Notch was created during the end of the last Ice Age, when meltwater that had accumulated in what is now the Schoharie headlands to the north of the notch gradually began eroding its way through the gap between the mountains, eventually becoming the Stony Clove Creek.



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The Dutch Reformed Church is one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Newburgh, New York. It was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1835 in the Greek Revival style common in America in that time period. It is his only surviving church in that style and is considered to be his latest building still standing that largely reflects his original vision. It is located at 132 Grand Street, just north of the Newburgh Free Library. Its historical importance comes from not just over a century of use as church, but its centrality in the struggle by modern preservationists to save and restore the city's many landmark buildings. Today it is a National Historic Landmark. It was almost razed in the late 1960s, and even today is far from completely restored. The church is 50 feet (15 m) wide and high, and 100 feet (30.5 m) long. The four front Ionic order columns are 37 feet (12 m) high (the capitals have been removed for safety considerations at the moment). It sits on a bluff 250 feet (76 m) above the Hudson River, a few blocks away.



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The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly 94 miles (151 km) into New York, where it drains into Rondout Creek near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston. The river is often said to be unusual because it flows north between two major south-flowing rivers, the Hudson and the Delaware River. It also has the unusual distinction of being a river that drains into a creek, due to being impounded shortly before the Rondout confluence into a small body of water called Sturgeon Pool near Rifton, and what reaches the Rondout from there is the lesser flow. Its broad valley nestles between the main Appalachian Mountains and the New York-New Jersey Highlands, supporting much local agriculture. During its course it first drains most of Sussex County, New Jersey, then flows through the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge at the New Jersey/New York state line. Most of the New Jersey portion is navigable by canoe.



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Stewart International Airport (IATA: SWFICAO: KSWF) is located near Newburgh, New York, in the southern Hudson Valley, 55 miles (88.5 km) north of New York City and, 15 miles (23 km) west of Poughkeepsie, NY . Originally developed in the 1930s as a military base to allow cadets at the nearby United States Military Academy at West Point to learn aviation, it has over the years grown into the major passenger airport for the mid-Hudson region and continues to serve as a military airfield as well, currently housing the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard and Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The space shuttle could also land at Stewart in an emergency. It has made history in several ways. After its closure as an active Air Force base in the early 1970s, an ambitious plan by former Governor Nelson Rockefeller to greatly expand and develop the airport led to a bitter and protracted struggle with local landowners that led to reforms in the state's eminent domain laws but no actual development of the land acquired.



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The Hulet Clark Farmstead is located along South Plank Road north of the hamlet of Westtown, in the Town of Minisink, New York, United States. It is a 75-acre (30 ha) property along both sides of the road, consisting of a farmhouse, barn, chicken coop and other outbuildings. While he did not build the house, Clark, a longtime Minisink resident who served the town in several different capacities in the first half of the 19th century, would be most associated with it. The center of the Clark farm is the farmhouse, a two-story hand-hewn three-bay timber frame structure. Its stone foundation is built into the sloping ground beneath, with four feet (122 cm) of exposure in front. A porch was built in the 1930s to replace a more modest stoop that preceded it, along with the house's stone chimney, and a small south addition replaced a larger one earlier in the 20th century. The interior floor plan remains largely unaltered. A nearby chicken house, now used as a garage, was built in the early 20th century on the site of the barn it replaced. The current barn is located across the road, with a northern half dating to 1876 and a more recent addition on a concrete foundation coming in the early 20th century.