Storm King Mountain, 137 Years Ago

In the summer of 1880, a photographer named William Henry Jackson took a photograph of Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River, for the Detroit Publishing Company. Photography itself was a relatively new concept at the time, having only been around for several decades prior. The image he captured shows the mountain as it appeared at the time, which looks surprisingly similar to how it does today, with one notable exception; the Storm King Highway. The highway, which now carves a noticeable line around the lower half mountain was a marvel of civil engineering when it was completed 42 years after this photo was taken. The construction of the highway saved travelers 22 miles off the previous route they would have otherwise had to take between points north and south of the mountain. Preservation efforts in the 1960s, by the group that would become Scenic Hudson saved Storm King from further development as a massive electrical power plant, and retained the mountain as we see it, now.

The photo seen here was meticulously reworked and restored by John Morzen in 2016, using an image sourced from the original 8" x 10" glass plate negative.