r thy silver bark be steering,
Bright Dian floating by fair Persian lands,
Tell if thou visited, thou heavenly rover,
A lovelier stream than this the wide world over.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

=Poughkeepsie to Kingston.=

Leaving the Poughkeepsie dock the steamer approaches the Poughkeepsie
Bridge which, from Blue Point and miles below, has seemed to the
traveler like a delicate bit of lace-work athwart the landscape,
or like an old-fashioned "valance" which used to hang from Dutch
bedsteads in the Hudson River farm houses. This great cantilever
structure was begun in 1873, but abandoned for several years. The work
was resumed in 1886 just in time to save the charter, and was finished
by the Union Bridge Company in less than three years. The bridge is
12,608 feet in length (or about two miles and a half), the track being
212 feet above the water with 165 feet clear above the tide in the
centre span. The breadth of the river at this point is 3,094 feet. The
bridge originally cost over three million dollars and much more has
been annually spent in necessary improvements. It not only affords a
delightful passenger route between Philadelphia and Boston, but also
brings the coal centres of Pennsylvania to the very threshold of New
England. Two railroads from the east centre here, and what was once
considered an idle dream, although bringing personal loss to many
stockholders, has been of material advantage to the city.

As the steamer passes under the bridge the traveler will see on the
left Highland station (_West Shore Railroad_) and above this the old
landing of New Paltz. A well traveled road winds from the ferry and
the station, up a narrow defile by the side of a dashing stream,
broken here and there in waterfalls, to Highland Village, New Paltz
and Lake Mohonk. _The Bridge and Trolley Line_ from Poughkeepsie make
a most delightful excursion to New Paltz, on the Wallkill, seat of one
of the State normal colleges.

* * *

My thoughts go back to thee, oh lovely lake,
Lake of the Sky Top! as thy beauties break
Upon the traveller of thy mountain road,
While sunset gilds thee, vision never fairer glowed!

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

Prominent among many pleasant residences above Poughkeepsie are:
Mrs. F. J. Allen's of New York, Mrs. John F. Winslow's, Mrs. Thomas
Newbold's, J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'. The large red buildings
above the Poughkeepsie wate