FINDINGS.

SEC. 902. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) The Hudson River Valley between Yonkers, New York, and Troy, New York, possesses important historical, cultural, and natural resources, representing themes of settlement and migration, transportation, and commerce. (2) The Hudson River Valley played an important role in the military history of the American Revolution. (3) The Hudson River Valley gave birth to important movements in American art and architecture through the work of Andrew Jackson Downing, Alexander Jackson Davis, Thomas Cole, and their associates, and played a central role in the recognition of the esthetic value of the landscape and the development of an American esthetic ideal. (4) The Hudson River Valley played an important role in the development of the iron, textile, and collar and cuff industries in the 19th century, exemplified in surviving structures such as the Harmony Mills complex at Cohoes, and in the development of early men’s and women’s labor and cooperative organizations, and is the home of the first women’s labor union and the first women’s secondary school. 110 STAT. 4276 (5) The Hudson River Valley, in its cities and towns and in its rural landscapes— (A) displays exceptional surviving physical resources illustrating these themes and the social, industrial, and cultural history of the 19th and early 20th centuries; and (B) includes many National Historic Sites and Landmarks. (6) The Hudson River Valley is the home of traditions associated with Dutch and Huguenot settlements dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, was the locus of characteristic American stories such as “Rip Van Winkle” and the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, and retains physical, social, and cultural evidence of these traditions and the traditions of other more recent ethnic and social groups. (7) New York State has established a structure for the Hudson River Valley communities to join together to preserve, conserve, and manage these resources, and to link them through trails and other means, in the Hudson River Greenway Communities Council and the Greenway Conservancy.