in Poughkeepsie's history and one of the most important in that of
the whole Union, was the convention held here in 1788 at which the state
of N.Y. decided to ratify the federal constitution. The decision was
carried by three votes.

The credit for bringing N.Y. into the Union must go largely to
Alexander Hamilton and his supporters, John Jay and Chancellor
Robert R. Livingston. Of the three N.Y. delegates to the federal
convention, Hamilton was the only one to sign its report, and
when the state convention was called at Poughkeepsie, June 17,
1788, two-thirds of its members voted against the proposed U.S.
constitution. The opposition was led by Gov. George Clinton and
his party, known as the "Clintonians." Clinton, though he here
fought bitterly the proposed new constitution and government,
lived to be a Vice President of the U.S. (He should not be
confused with the DeWitt Clinton who later built the Erie Canal.)
The eloquence of Hamilton, Jay and Livingston, however, coupled
with the news that New Hampshire and Virginia had ratified,
finally carried the day, and the N.Y. Convention gave its
approval of the new Constitution by a vote of 30 to 27.

Vassar College, the oldest women's college in America, and one of the
most famous, occupies extensive grounds to the east of the city.

Vassar was founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar (1791-1868), an
Englishman who had established in Poughkeepsie in 1801 a brewery
from which he became rich. He got the idea of founding a woman's
college from his niece, Lydia Booth, a school teacher. His total
gifts to the institution amounted to about $800,000. His nephew,
Matthew Vassar, Jr., became manager of the brewery after his
uncle's death, and gave in all about $500,000 to the college.
Vassar now has a campus and farm of about 800 acres, and
possesses an endowment of $2,440,000. Its students number about
1,100.

The Hudson near Poughkeepsie furnishes the course for the
intercollegiate races in which American college crews, with the
exception of Harvard and Yale (which row on the Thames at New London)
have rowed practically every year since 1895. The river is spanned at
this point by one of the largest cantilever bridges in the world. It is
2,260 ft. long and 200 ft. above the water, and is the only bridge over
the Hudson south of Albany.

It required 4 years to build the bridge, w