New York City to Albany Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America...

..with a new travelling companion.

BEEPING

Published in 1879,

my Appletons' General Guide will steer me to everything

that's novel,

beautiful,

memorable or curious in the United States.

-CONGREGATION:

-Amen.

As I cross the continent, I'll discover America's Gilded Age,

when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom that tied

the nation together and carved out its future as a superpower.

Today, my guidebook takes me north from New York City,

through the Empire State, following the mighty Hudson.

The river has played major roles in American history.

It featured importantly in the war that won

independence for the United States of America.

Its upriver industries brought the country prosperity and power.

And its natural beauty inspired art that helped the new nation to

define itself - so much so that it became known as America's River.

This river takes its name from the Englishman Henry Hudson,

who explored it in 1609.

It flows from the Adirondacks, 300 miles behind me, to here, Manhattan.

Appletons' promises me "some of the most picturesque scenery in America.

"The Hudson has been compared to the Rhine

"and what it lacks in crumbling ruin and castle-crowned steep, it more

"than makes up for by its greater variety and superior breadth."

What an invitation to follow the course of the mighty Hudson.

On this journey, I'm travelling through New York state.

I began in New York City and Long Island.

Now I'll continue up the Hudson to Poughkeepsie

and the capital of New York state, Albany.

From there, I'll turn west to the Great Lakes,

taking in Rochester and Buffalo,

and finish my journey on the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.

This leg of my journey begins at New York City's Penn Station,

from where I'll head north, following the Hudson to Tarrytown.

I'll continue to Garrison,

where I'll cross the river to West Point,

the United States National Military Academy.

I'll hug the banks of the river north to Poughkeepsie,

then head west into the beautiful Catskill Mountains.

I'll finish in the capital of New York State, Albany.

'Along the way, I will be spooked by a famous American ghost story.'

This sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow!

'I'll take an entirely different sort of line.'

Ah! Woah! Ah!

'And marvel at beautiful American scenery on a legendary iron horse.'

Wow.

Take it west, little Tom.

I'm beginning my journey following Appletons' recommended route through

beautiful upstate New York from the decidedly modern Penn Station.

At the time of my guidebook, there was no railroad station here.

Travellers would have boarded the Hudson River Railroad further

north in Harlem.

If you ever saw a New Yorker standing here crying,

it might be because he was mourning the loss of the old Penn Station.

It was a vast neoclassical building that stood here.

It was easily one of the most beautiful structures in New York

and, in the dreaded 1960s, they tore it down, stone by stone. Why?

Because the railroad was pretty broke

and they did a really good property deal that created this skyscraper

and the Madison Square Gardens, from which we get the boxing matches.

The Penn Central Railroad, which bulldozed Penn Station,

itself collapsed not long after.

And in 1971, train services were taken over by a new national

carrier - Amtrak.

Every day, Amtrak's Penn Station serves over 500,000 people.

With so many users,

this rail company needs its own police department.

The force's police chief is Polly Hanson.

Chief, how many officers do you have now

and across how many states do you operate?

So Amtrak Police are over 500-strong.

We're responsible for over 20,000 employees,

riding and operating trains over 20,000 miles of track,

-serving 500 destinations in 46 states.

-46 states?

I mean, that is a tremendous span for you, isn't it?

What were the origins of railroad policing in the United States?

The history of railroad police really dates back to after

the Civil War.

You had people like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,

Frank and Jesse James, who were getting on trains and robbing them.

And so, the owners of the railroad, very powerful,

important rich men, wanted to keep that wealth.

So they hired people like Allan Pinkerton who,

at the time, was a very innovative investigator

and created his own company.

Scottish-born Allan Pinkerton founded his eponymous detective

agency in 1850 and quickly solved a string of train crimes.

But he met his match when hired to track down one of the most

successful train robbing duos in history -

Robert Leroy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy,

and his partner in crime, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid.

In 1899, in a single robbery of a Union Pacific train, the pair made

off with 50,000 - the equivalent of nearly 1.5 million today.

Pinkerton agents followed the bandits' trail

and they realised that, before long, they'd be ensnared.

Mr Pinkerton used really innovative investigative techniques

and, of course, today, you take it for granted that you can use DNA and

photographs and send off a cable,

but they didn't have that capability then

and they still were able to track them

down across the United States, here to New York City,

and then they boarded a ship and went to South America.

In early 1901, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid set

sail from New York City, bound for Buenos Aires.

In 1908, the outlaws reportedly died in a hail of bullets in Bolivia

and quickly became heroes of American popular culture.

Since 9/11, the main focus of the railroad police is counterterrorism

and officers are a reassuring presence on my train to Tarrytown.

I use the journey to see the work of Allan Pinkerton's modern-day

equivalents - Special Agent Marc Deslandes, Sergeant Robert Smith

and K-9 Officer Jake.

This is one of our explosive detection dogs designed to

seek out and locate potential explosive devices,

either carried on board or somewhere hidden.

Their noses are very good at picking up

and detecting explosive odour

and they can be deployed on moving trains,

on trains that are stationary, we put them to work in our stations,

in and around our stations and in and around our passengers

and the crowds of people that come through.

The connection between animal and officer is important, is it?

It's extremely important. We have a special bond with our dogs.

He gets to come home with me.

He's basically my family,

so we work together and we also live together at home.

I get to feed him, make sure that he's well taken care of.

He's your animal but he is not a pet.

How do you keep the proper distance,

make sure that that is a working animal?

He basically knows when he's working and he knows when he's off duty.

And at work, we're very strict about not allowing other

officers or passengers to pet our dogs.

This way, they can concentrate on doing their jobs.

On this line that hugs the Hudson, Appletons' tells me where to sit.

"Secure a seat on the left-hand side of the cars going north."

It soon becomes clear why.

My route affords not just spectacular views,

but if the railroad company's advertisement is to be believed,

unrivalled travelling comfort on a level gradient.

In contrast to the mountainous route taken by the competitor,

the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Safe trip.

'I arrive in Yonkers,

'at a splendid redbrick station designed in Beaux Arts style in 1911,

'for the New York Central Railroad by the same architects who

'went on to create Grand Central Terminal in New York City.'

The city of Yonkers takes its name from "de Jonckheer",

or "young Dutch Lord".

Adriaen van der Donck,

who settled in this area in the mid-17th century.

200 years later in 1849,

the railroad arrived and connected Yonkers to New York City.

Workers commuted daily but Yonkers maintained an industrial base

with the Otis Elevator Works and the second largest carpet maker

in the world.

Today the city is the manufacturing headquarters for Kawasaki

passenger rail cars.

I'm having my lunch in a delightful restored 19th-century pier,

so I'm sitting literally over the Hudson and from here I can

admire the broad estuary.

This also gives me my last glimpse of my beloved, so exciting,

New York City, before I head on upriver.

And it's the Metro North Railroad that will carry me onwards.

I shall be leaving this train at Tarrytown.

Appletons' tells me that it takes its chief interest from its

association with the life and writings of Washington Irving.

Nearby are some of the scenes of his happiest fancies,

including the immortal story, Sleepy Hollow.

I shall be interested to see how inspired this great figure

of 19th-century American literature was by the grandiose scenery

of the Hudson Valley.

Just before my stop, crossing the Hudson at one of its widest

points is the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The name comes from one of the area's American Indian tribes,

known as the Tappan, and zee, Dutch for sea - reflecting both

indigenous inhabitants and the first settlers of New York state.

Both groups would inspire the first true American writer,

who named New York City "Gotham" and whose characters would later be

brought to life by stars like Johnny Depp.

-TANNOY:

-Please watch the gap between the train and the platform.

I'm making my way to his house - once a site popular with

tourists escaping the city - with the help of my guidebook.

Washington Irving was born into a wealthy Manhattan merchant

family on April 3rd, 1783, at about the same time that the city's

residents learned of the ceasefire that heralded American independence

and so he was named after the hero of the day - George Washington.

At Irving's home, I'm meeting literary scholar Michael Lord.

Michael, Washington Irving built his house in a lovely spot,

but tell me, what's his place in the American heart, would you say?

I'd say that Washington Irving was the first writer of any

sort in America to gain any respect, especially throughout Europe.

Europeans saw most Americans as perhaps country farmers

without much of an education.

And Irving, I think, changed their minds a little bit.

He achieved that not from this beautiful veranda but from Europe.

In 1815, Irving went to England in an attempt to save

the family business.

I'd say he wrote most of his important works

while he was in Europe.

The Sketchbook Of Geoffrey Crayon

and this is where he introduces us to Rip Van Winkle,

as well as Tales Of The Alhambra.

He is travelling across the continent, picking up little

short stories, lots of information on folktales and legends

and applying them to a new American setting.

So, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is a mixture of old German folktales

set here and this is where, I believe, Europeans and Americans

really begin to both take interest in the stories that he is creating.

When he comes back to the United States, then,

does he find that he has become famous?

He is treated almost like royalty when he comes back to New York

in 1832, where he is wined and dined and feted in the city.

He is actually offered to be the Mayor of New York,

which he politely turns down.

He is probably, arguably anyway,

America's largest celebrity at that time.

Hugely successful as an author,

Washington Irving put down roots in Tarrytown, New York, in 1835,

at the cottage he named Sunnyside.

I understand why he built his house on the banks of the Hudson,

but why in front of the railway line?

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have that train so close,

but when Irving purchases the land here,

this is 1835 and the railway is 12 years off into the future.

He had no idea that he was going to end up with

tracks in the front of his house.

This is an American romantic who embraces nature

and loves nature and, all of a sudden, this machine

comes into the garden and he was quite upset about it.

What do we know about how upset he was?

We have several letters attesting to the fact that he was quite

unhappy about this.

We know that, in 1847, he writes to a nephew of his, he says,

"If the Garden of Eden were now on Earth,

"they would not hesitate to run a railroad through it."

Wow. He was angry.

Even a couple of years later,

after the railroad actually had come through,

he pens off a note in 1850.

He says, "Excuse me for not answering sooner your kind letter.

"It found me in a terrible state of shattered nerves,

"having been startled out of my sleep by the infernal alarum

"of your railroad steam trumpet."

I must say, while I've been here I have noticed that your engineers,

what we call train drivers, do like to use their horns a lot.

Apparently, Irving felt the same way that you did

because even in the same letter he writes,

"I remain sleepless until daybreak, miserable all the following day.

"It seemed to me almost as if done on purpose."

One of our best-known writers had a phobia of trains,

having been involved in a very nasty railway accident,

Charles Dickens.

He travelled a lot in the United States.

I'm wondering, did he meet Washington Irving?

Dickens travelled here to New York around 1842,

met Irving while he was in New York City.

They wined and dined and they walked around the town,

and Irving and Dickens stayed close for the rest of their lives.

And I can rather imagine that when they dined,

they raised their glasses and the toast was, "Down with the train."

I imagine you are right.

Just north of Irving's home is the village

that inspired his most quintessentially American work,

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

Its combination of romance and horror made it a bestseller...

..and it's still often retold at Halloween.

"And the peculiar character of its inhabitants,

"who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers,

"this sequestered glen has long been known

"by the name of Sleepy Hollow."

It's the ghoulish story of an unlikely hero, Ichabod Crane,

and his mysterious disappearance at the hands of a headless horseman.

"The stories of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others,

"were called to mind

"and when they had diligently considered them all

"and compared them with the symptoms of the present case,

"they shook their heads and came to the conclusion

"that Ichabod had been carried off by the Galloping Hessian."

Ooh. Scary stuff!

LAUGHTER

Today my route continues along the eastern bank of the Hudson,

America's River, to Garrison, New York.

In contrast to the tranquil landscape,

Appletons' informs me that this area witnessed many stormy fights

between guerrillas on both sides during the War of Independence.

Because across the water is a site of such strategic importance

that General George Washington described it

as the Gibraltar of the continent.

"West Point",

says Appletons', "is one of the most attractive places on the river

"and the seat of the National Military Academy,

"which occupies a broad plateau 175 feet above the river.

"The grounds are tastefully laid out, containing fine monuments

"and commanding pleasant views."

For me to obtain my objective, I must cross the mighty Hudson

and scale the heights, which, as any cadet at the academy could

tell you, are perilous manoeuvres.

Fortunately, my guidebook suggests a delightful excursion may be

made by taking the morning boat.

All clear the dock.

So I'm following 19th-century travellers to cross

the Hudson in style aboard this paddleboat.

During America's War of Independence, Benedict Arnold,

a man whose conduct was to prove unbecoming

to an officer and a gentleman,

took charge of the military fortifications here.

The story of his plan to betray his countrymen to the British

is inextricably bound to this river.

And at the time of my Appletons',

he lived on in the national consciousness

as America's greatest turncoat,

but crewmember Norman Stellefson has rather a different take.

Benedict Arnold was probably one of the best generals that we had.

The only thing was, he never got credit for anything he did

so he could never get the promotion.

Nevertheless, the under-promoted Arnold distinguished himself

in the fight for American independence,

including at the critical Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

He was shot twice in his leg and it was really bad,

but he looked and he saw that the battle was not going very well,

so he jumped onto a white horse,

went out there and he actually changed the battle

around and then they won the battle.

So you think that Benedict Arnold was actually

an American revolutionary hero?

I'd say he was, absolutely.

With such severe injuries to his leg,

Arnold's combat career was over.

Embittered, in 1780, he was made superintendent of West Point.

He was so disgusted the way they treated him

and everything else,

that he did pull a lot of stuff that was not legal.

He had a ship of his own and they were bringing stuff in.

They used the army wagons to bring the stuff in and everything,

any fabulous dancers and everything else. He really lived it up high.

And he liked money.

And when he met British major John Andre,

Arnold's greed got the better of him.

He made plans to surrender West Point in exchange for £20,000.

Andre had to cross the little bridge.

That's when he got stopped and they searched him,

and they found the plans in his boot.

But when Benedict Arnold saw what happened to Andre, he said,

"I've got to get out of here."

He jumped on his horse and went down to the British ship, the Vulture,

and got on it and got away.

What do Americans think of Benedict Arnold today?

A lot of people, as soon as they hear Benedict, they go,

"Traitor, traitor."

But they don't really realise what I just told you.

You'd be a traitor, too,

if no matter what you did,

you never got credit for it.

That's terrible.

Pulling in on the starboard side.

West Point has produced

some of the greatest generals in American history.

Today, the United States Military Academy continues to train

commissioned army officers.

OFFICERS SHOUT RESPONSE

I can't hear you.

OFFICERS SHOUT RESPONSE

Alumni and current cadets are known collectively as The Long Gray Line.

Exercise, one, two, three.

With 4,400 cadets in residence,

this bridge becomes pretty busy

when classes are changing.

Amongst these faces there could be future generals,

people who one day will be household names

and, since West Point boasts two former occupants of the White House,

some of them might be a future president.

West Point played a key role in the American War of Independence.

The Hudson passed between the northern and southern colonies.

The revolutionaries had to cross it with munitions and men.

The river also provided a potential invasion route for the British

moving down from Canada.

In the spring of 1778,

the revolutionaries stretched one of the longest and largest chains

ever forged across the river at West Point

and for the remainder of the war,

prevented British ships from sailing upriver.

At the monument to this impenetrable piece of military engineering,

I'm meeting historian Lieutenant Colonel Sherman Fleek.

Here we have the 13 original links of the chain.

The 13 links represent the 13 colonies.

-Each link weighed about 85lb.

-Ooh, let me try that.

-Go ahead.

Whoa!

-Just about.

-So, 65 tonnes, 1,700 feet long.

-And with this you kept the Royal Navy at bay.

-Yes, sir, we did.

With their giant chain in place,

the revolutionaries foiled British ambitions to cut their forces in two.

The Americans secured independence in 1783.

Sherman, when does it become a military academy, then?

So, the academy was established in 1802

under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, our third president.

There had been some debate for years

whether we should have a military academy here or not,

which runs counter to the principles and values

of the American Revolution

because of the fear of standing armies.

American attitudes to the military have changed remarkably

since the 18th century.

Today, the armed forces are seen by many Americans

as key to their national identity,

but the Founding Fathers thought back to repression by the British,

associating a standing army with tyranny

and a potential threat to their hard-won liberty.

Who is the guiding spirit who establishes the Military Academy

as it is today?

Without a doubt, the father of the Academy is Sylvanus Thayer.

He became the superintendent in 1817.

He changed everything. He introduced officership, dedication,

duty, responsibility.

He introduced engineering as a strong proponent.

This school was the very first engineering school

in the United States.

With that expertise, West Point graduates

played a key role in the development of America's railroads.

So, by the time of the Civil War,

there was more railroads in the north

than the rest of the world combined.

By 1861, West Pointers had helped to lay

approximately two-thirds of the 31,000 miles of track in America.

At the outbreak of hostilities, with the nation divided,

the American Civil War was set to become

the first railway war in history.

The American Civil War is a watershed event in our history,

without a doubt.

It came close to almost destroying this nation.

304 graduates, some of our best people,

went and fought for the Confederacy.

Not only is it father against son and brother against brother,

but it's classmate against classmate

and now all of a sudden they are thrown into this devilish war

where they are fighting each other.

It was heart-rendering. It would just tear you apart.

The Civil War imposed a heavy death toll on both sides

and was so divisive that it threatened

the survival of West Point.

One time during the war, and twice after the war,

West Point was accused of being a nest of traitors

because of the 304 graduates who fought for the Confederacy.

It was seen by the US Congress that West Point was

a den of treachery, where these graduates that we funded

and paid for. Robert E Lee, 31 years on active duty as a colonel,

all of a sudden, when we needed him, he turned sides against us.

And so they wanted to end West Point.

Congress didn't get its way

and West Point went on to produce

some of the finest military leaders in history.

Generals like Patton,

MacArthur

and Eisenhower.

The Westpoint Hotel, says my guidebook, is an excellent house.

It was rebuilt in the 1920s and named after Sylvanus Thayer,

the father of the military academy.

Before that it had hosted generals like Stonewall Jackson,

Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee and so, as I enter,

I'm following in the bootsteps of some of the major figures of US military history.

You can see why the River Hudson would be compared to the Rhine

and, like the Rhine, the trains run along the bank.

But according to Appletons',

no European river is as lordly in its bearing.

And over the centuries, Americans have drawn a great deal of pride

from their distinctive landscape.

I think it's time for me to explore further

by moving upstream and upstate.

Today I'm heading to Poughkeepsie.

From there I will continue north to Rhinecliff,

where I'll cross the Hudson to the Catskill Mountains before

finishing in the state capital, Albany.

I shall be leaving this train at Poughkeepsie.

Appletons' tells me that it's the largest city

between New York and Albany.

"It has no fewer than eight important educational institutions,

"including Vassar College - one of the leading female colleges

"in the world."

How interesting that, from the middle of the 19th century,

American women could enjoy higher education

of exceptional quality.

Founded less than 20 years before my guidebook was published,

Vassar College had an unlikely benefactor.

English-born Matthew Vassar had no formal education.

He'd made his fortune from beer, with his brewery, like many others,

thriving on the banks of the Hudson.

With no heirs, Vassar decided to immortalise his name

with an institution and boldly founded a university for women

to rival the men's Ivy League colleges.

Now co-educational, as a women's college, Vassar

counted Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Meryl Streep amongst its former students

and had attracted illustrious women at the time of my Appletons'.

In the observatory named after Maria Mitchell,

I'm meeting astronomy professor Debbie Elmgreen.

-Hello, Debbie.

-Hiya, Michael.

Good to see you.

I just wonder, how quickly did Vassar have an observatory?

It was the first building on campus.

That's extraordinary. Why was that so?

Matthew Vassar had a vision that he wanted women to be educated

just as men were and, 20 years earlier,

Maria Mitchell had been awarded a gold medal

from the King of Denmark for discovering a comet through

a telescope and that made a worldwide impact,

so everyone knew about her.

She was America's first woman astronomer

and so he lured her to Vassar to be one of the first professors,

and built the first observatory for her.

And what was she like as a teacher of her students?

She was famous for getting students up beyond their curfew

and getting them up in the middle of the night to observe an object.

The only problem is that Poughkeepsie skies

are not research grade skies.

Because you have too much light.

Because we have too much light and too unstable an atmosphere.

Did Maria Mitchell take her students further afield?

She had two famous expeditions cross-country in the late 1800s.

So 1869, 1878, she took a handful of girls by train

to see total solar eclipses

and this was obviously very pioneering.

She went to one in Iowa and another in Denver.

Poughkeepsie, New York to Denver, Colorado is quite a long train ride.

Couple of thousand miles, yeah.

Here were these young women, who were in the field

with their long dresses, with chronometers measuring the eclipse.

One of her mottos was,

"Don't learn it from a book, learn it by doing it."

And we still do that today.

Heading back to the Hudson, I'm struck by the natural beauty

of this impressive 300-mile-long river.

and by the prowess of the engineers who

in so many places along its course managed to span its awesome width.

This is the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge.

It was the first to link the eastern and western shores of the river.

And thus, New York City to the growing American railroad network.

Opened in 1888, with a span of close to 7,000 feet,

it was a technological wonder of its time.

It burnt down in 1974 and lay abandoned for nearly two decades.

Then, in 2009, it rose from the ashes

as this delightful pedestrian walkway.

It is the longest elevated walkway in the world.

It was once the longest bridge in the world

and the first to be built across the Hudson.

Having come to know a little bit about this mighty river,

I'm struck that I can, at a height of 212 feet,

cross it using just the power of my own two feet.

My route continues back across the Hudson, at Poughkeepsie,

where I pick up my journey northwards to Rhinecliff.

Thank you very much.

At the time of my guidebook, many travellers would have been

making their way west to the wilderness

of the Catskill Mountains.

"The Catskills," says Appletons',

"are part of the great Appalachian mountain chain.

"They follow the course of the Hudson River for 20 or 30 miles.

"They present a multitude of picturesque objects

"and Indian traditions single them out as the favourite dwelling place

"of spirits."

Thanks to that usual American combination of a tycoon

and brilliant railroad engineers,

we can enjoy them by train.

All aboard!

-Hello, Earl!

-Hello there, Michael, how are you?

-Good to see you.

-Great to see you, too.

Thank you, Tom, we're ready to go.

-OK!

-Wow.

Take it west, little Tom.

HORN BLARES

Today, small sections of the numerous lines

that once crisscrossed the area run as heritage railways

and are looked after by enthusiasts like Earl Pardini.

Earl, my Appletons' tells me that the Catskills contain wild country

and are a favourite place for artists,

but I don't suppose that's why they built a railroad here. Why did they?

Well, it's really interesting, Michael.

The reason they charted this railroad originally

was to tan hides.

The Catskill Mountains were covered with hemlocks and red oak,

and the bark from those trees made tannic acid

and, would you believe it,

when you look around at the Catskills Mountains

and you see all these trees here,

around 1890, this place was clear-cut, clear-cut!

When they cut down all these trees, they had all that lumber

and that ended up going to New York to build the metropolitan area.

By the time they got the railroad completed enough,

they also developed chrome tanning

and the whole tanning thing went away.

By the mid-19th century,

the abundant natural resources of this area gave rise to tourism.

Of course, the cities at that time were all coal-fired

and pollution was just horrible, especially in the summertime,

so that people were looking for a place to go and, of course,

we had this beautiful clean air here.

As a young nation,

the United States lacked very old buildings for tourists to visit.

The dramatic landscapes of the Catskill Mountains

and the Hudson River became America's castles and cathedrals.

At its peak, which was around 1913,

670,000 people rode this railroad in one summer.

That is amazing.

There were nine trains a day in each direction.

Prior to the railroad,

it was a half a day's journey to get from Kingston

to where we are here right now,

and all of a sudden, with the railroad, it became an hour's trip.

HORN BLARES

So, in the industrial era, thanks to the railways,

this area wasn't quite the wild frontier.

Having enjoyed the heritage railroad,

I find that 21st-century tourists can appreciate

the Catskill Mountains on a different sort of line.

-Hello, are you Brad?

-I am. Hi, Michael. Welcome.

Very good to see you. You're going to get me harnessed up, are you?

-I am. Are you ready for this?

-Yes.

-All right.

-Largest head you've had here for a while.

-It is, actually.

-Oh!

-Is that too much?

-No, no. Just, you know, just feels

a little like a mediaeval torture. It's fine.

-Do you feel OK?

-I feel fine.

-All right.

Oh, my goodness. Oh!

Don't make any mistakes.

One, two, three.

One, two, see, four.

All right, now you are good to go.

Thank you very much.

I personally would always choose a railway line,

but for a view that you wouldn't get from a train

and that artists would have died for,

it has to be the zip line.

Ah!

For this you need cat skills!

Whoa!

Argh!

Argh!

Aah! Whoa!

Ah!

I'm making my way back to the river at the village of Catskill -

site of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

Built with supplies brought upstream,

with the help of a temporary narrow gauge railway,

it was named in 1935 after a character created by

the great American writer Washington Irving.

Irving declared,

"Of all the scenery of the Hudson,

"the Catskill Mountains have the most witching effect

"on my boyish imagination."

Overlooking the river is the studio of an American artist

who was mesmerised by this landscape -

Thomas Cole -

and there I meet art historian Keith Lebel.

So, this is a wonderfully preserved studio of Thomas Cole.

How did he paint? How did he represent the Hudson Valley?

Well, his first trip was spent hiking in the mountains, sketching,

really trying to capture a certain realism of the American landscape.

When he went back to his studio to finish the paintings,

he had completed a series of works to capture

the natural beauty and grandeur of the environment.

And this then was quite influential on others, I believe?

Others followed in his wake?

For sure. Cole is thought to be the founder

of the Hudson River School, which is a term that we use

to associate people like Frederic Church and Jasper Cropsey,

other artists who followed Cole's philosophy of nature

and how to look at America and paint it truthfully.

So when Cole begins in 1825,

I suppose that it is a pretty virgin landscape,

but then I've seen how much tourism there has been in this area,

-I assume it begins to change as those others follow him.

-For sure.

Industry comes up the Hudson Valley,

the trains bring corporations, tanneries,

people are altering the landscape

to make the most of the natural resources,

and this was problematic for Cole.

Cole himself made selective edits to his paintings

at the beginning of his career.

He would omit, very deliberately, signs of mankind.

It was this romanticised landscape

that late-19th-century tourists had come to enjoy.

Do you think the Hudson River School plays an important part

-in establishing national culture, self-consciousness?

-Yes, absolutely.

People like Thomas Cole

painted scenes from the wilderness

to legitimate the American landscape.

They would often paint views of natural land farms

that became tourist destinations in their own right.

It encouraged people to go out and see the landscape for themselves,

and to experience everything the nation had to offer.

Having experienced a little of this landscape for myself,

I too am inspired.

Excuse me disturbing you. Hello.

-Hello.

-My name's Michael.

-Katruen. Nice to meet you.

-Hello.

-Helena. Nice to meet you.

I find you in the shadow of Thomas Cole's house

-and I find you painting.

-Yes.

-Are you inspired by Thomas Cole?

-Yes.

I think everyone that works at the site is,

I think that's why we're drawn to it.

The area's beautiful and he captured the American wilderness

like no other painter has.

-I believe you teach children how to paint?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Well, you've got a large child with you now. LAUGHTER

So how should I set about depicting that tall, straight tree there?

Thomas Cole would first start with the drawing,

and he would actually write notes in there to himself to remind himself of the details,

and then he would go back home and paint.

So, the important thing with working like Thomas Cole

is that he always observed from nature.

Is there something particularly American

about Cole, about this landscape?

I know for many people Thomas Cole's landscapes are particularly American

because they have this wild aspect to them that you don't often see in European landscapes,

because Europe was just much more developed than America was when Thomas Cole was working here.

How do you think the Hudson River School is regarded in America today?

Well, it's definitely widely regarded

as the first great American art movement,

so it has a lasting influence.

I believe that Americans are in that point right now

where they're pulling back to Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School of thought,

cos it wasn't just painting,

going back to that to try to form a stronger American identity

when so many things are being challenged today.

I'm never going to capture the beauty of this landscape.

But, as I end my day, it's definitely made its impression.

I'm on the final leg of my journey north through upstate New York.

I shall be leaving this train at Albany,

which Appletons' tells me is the capital of New York State.

Founded by the Dutch as a trading post in 1614,

and next to Jamestown in Virginia,

it was the earliest European settlement

in the original 13 states.

Its present name was given to it in 1664

in honour of the Duke of York and Albany, who was later King James II.

It's very often the case in the USA that a state's capital

is not its biggest or best-known city,

and Albany, New York fits the pattern.

Albany became capital in 1797

and industry boomed thanks to its prime location.

The city also led the way in the new age of transport.

In 1831, one of America's earliest railroads, the Mohawk and Hudson,

ran north-west from Albany to Schenectady.

One of the first steam locomotives ever built in the United States

ran on this line, the Dewitt Clinton,

named after an early governor of New York state.

An industry which helped the affluence of the state was brewing,

so I've arranged to have a beer with ale historian Craig Gravina.

Albany has a great location.

It's right on the Hudson River, it's not too far from the Mohawk River,

which allows you to be able to get into the interior of the state.

And it's really perfectly positioned in the Appalachian mountain range,

where it's the only break in that mountain range to get to the Great Lakes.

In the 1820s, they built the Erie Canal

and it perfectly positions Albany to bring grain and hops

from central and western New York into Albany.

The beer is made in town

and then it's shipped down to the port of New York

and all over the world. We've seen that Albany Ale, by the 1850s,

is being shipped to Honolulu, Hawaii,

we've seen it in Newfoundland,

we've seen reference to it in Buenos Aires.

I'm using a guide book from 1879,

would Albany still have been dominant by then?

That would be the decline of the brewing industry.

During the American Civil War,

you have the Union Army and the Confederate Army

building railroads all over the country.

When small little hamlets and villages can get ingredients

in and out easily, be it beer or ingredients to make beer,

you don't have that lock any more.

By the time of my Appletons',

there were nearly 90,000 miles of railroad in the United States.

The tracks had created a national economy

and heralded the end of Albany's ale monopoly.

So, in the 19th century, if I'd asked for Albany Ale, what would that have been?

It would've been strong, first off, and it would have been fairly light.

It would've been mildly hopped, it would be the equivalent

of what today might be considered an English light mild.

-Well, I wouldn't mind tasting some of that.

-I think we can make that happen.

At this microbrewery, they're bringing back the glory days of Albany Ale

under master brewer Ryan Demler.

So now is when we get into the fun and messy bit.

If you would be so kind as to tap the cask for us so we could try it.

And why is that messy?

Erm, I mean, you know, if it's not well-vented,

you might get a little bit of a beer shower.

-You look ready to take a shower, it's a hot day.

-Would you...?

-I'm standing back here.

-Would you mind holding on to that?

-Absolutely.

OK.

-Ready, everybody?

-As we'll ever be.

Hey!

-All right.

-Right!

-TAPPING

-Job done.

-Perfect.

-Thank you very much.

-You're very welcome.

Now, what do you call this lovely brew?

We're calling this one, in honour of you coming down here, Albany Railroad Ale.

-Thank you. Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

Wow! That is strong!

80 years after my Appletons' was published,

Albany was in decline.

To galvanise the city, the then state governor, Nelson Rockefeller,

dramatically altered the skyline.

This is his Empire State Plaza,

a complex of state government buildings

in the international style,

inspired in part by the architecture of Brasilia.

Costing 2 billion, it was designed on this massive scale

to be appreciated from across the Hudson.

Albany was also engaged in a grand building project at the time of my guidebook.

Published in 1879, my Appletons' tells me that the new capital

"was began in 1871 and its exterior is nearly finished.

"When completed, it will be the largest and most splendid edifice in America,

"except for the federal capital at Washington.

"It stands on the most elevated ground

"and will be visible for many miles around."

With this spectacular building, New York made a statement.

You might call it assertive,

some other envious states might have called it arrogant.

In fact, Albany had good reason to be boastful.

It was one of America's oldest and most prosperous cities

and, in 1754, it had hosted a conference

at which a proposal formally to unite the colonies was discussed.

A president and Grand Council of Representatives was suggested,

and each colony was to retain its own independent legislature.

Although not implemented at the time,

it's not unlike the political system

that the United States of America would adopt.

This is called the Million Dollar Staircase

because that's what it cost.

Are you shocked?

Well, I believe in spending big money on a building that represents

a state or a nation.

I think good public architecture lifts the spirit of the people,

and a fine building like this can last for centuries.

As a former politician, I look forward to comparing notes

with New York State Senator Democrat Neil Breslin and his staff.

-You haven't met Michael.

-Hello.

-Hi, I'm Kate. Nice to meet you.

Good to see you, Kate.

What...? Are you in charge of constituents or legislation?

-What's your bailiwick?

-I am the Senator's community liaison.

Now, Neil and I are a rather similar generation.

Does Neil get in there on Twitter and Facebook?

Oh, yeah. He has a Twitter account, a Facebook account,

-a LinkedIn account.

-I'm proud of you.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-LAUGHTER

I never got my head round that stuff.

-How do you do?

-Good, Michael.

So what kind of legislation's on the boil at the moment?

You know, the Senator was responsible for insurance and healthcare and education.

-And I think Neil has a background in insurance, don't you?

-That's correct.

So is that what you particularly enjoy legislating about?

So I've been in insurance in the Senate for 18 years.

-That's a bit awkward because the Senator may know more than the staffer?

-Yeah, he does.

LAUGHTER

-Or at least that's what Evan is saying now.

-LAUGHTER

-Appropriately.

-Yes.

Although my guidebook looked forward

to this building soon being completed,

in fact, it would take a further 20 years.

It was opened in 1899 by Theodore Roosevelt, then the state governor.

The lavish decoration in the Senate Chamber

is perhaps a clue as to why it took so long.

Now something that rather puzzles me, cos I used to be in your business as well,

for European viewers it may be a bit difficult to understand,

what do the states do and what does the federal government do?

I think it's best described by saying each of the 50 states

does what they think is best for their state

and the federal government generally leaves them alone,

unless there's some compelling national interest

that allows the federal government to act.

With New York State, you have New York City, upstate,

we're a lot different than other states in terms of our philosophy,

we're much more liberal,

so we can have laws passed that reflect the population,

and I think a good example of that

is marriage equality passed in New York State.

-You were in the vanguard on marriage equality, were you?

-That's correct.

This is a magnificent building, which I found very striking.

How does it feel to you, coming to work, day by day,

in this grand place?

Every day, when I walk in here, it's a monumental day.

I look around and I go, "My gosh,

"this is a nice place to be in and a nice place to work."

And it's nice to bring my grandchildren in here to see it

-and they view it as a castle.

-LAUGHTER

It does represent the might of New York.

-I mean, New York just is a very important and powerful state, isn't it?

-Right.

I still believe it's the commercial centre of the world

and one of the most important states,

and, if it was a country,

one of the most important countries in the world.

That particularly American political, economic

and cultural power flowed down the Hudson,

through the Empire State

and across the world.

The Hudson River was named after an Englishman

who was working for the Dutch.

And New York and Albany draw their names from a British prince,

yet the Hudson has played a vital role in defining America

since the moment that revolutionaries

prevented the Royal Navy from conquering it.

In that riverscape,

which my guidebook regards as superior to any in Europe,

writers and painters developed a distinctive American style.

And out of the Hudson's waters and hills

there grew patriotism, national consciousness and self-assurance.

Next time - I try to keep up with the latest rail technology.

Can you see there's a little dip in the terrain?

You've put all the hazards in here, haven't you?

I land somewhere over the rainbow.

-And you have a yellow-brick road running all the way through your town.

-Yes, we do.

I'm offered a monster munch in Buffalo.

They come in increments of 10, 20, 50...

-50?!

-50 wings, yeah.

And end with an awe-inspiring experience.

Very first thing you see is a great plume of mist.