Newburgh Beacon Bridge History 3

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Over the years, other ferries began operation between Garrison and West Point, Poughkeepsie and Highland, Kingston and Rhinecliff, Catskill and Greendale, and Hudson and Athens. One by one they expired. When the New York State Bridge Authority took over the Beacon ferry it had been in deficit and decline for years and was soon to be the last ferry route north of New York City.

The last ferries, the Dutchess, the Orange, (both built by Newburgh shipyards) and the Beacon maintained ferry service until Sunday, November 3, 1963, one day after the opening of the original Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. Shortly after 5 p.m. that day, the Dutchess and the Orange met at mid-river, signaled a final salute and formally passed the Newburgh-Beacon ferry into history after 220 years. For $2 drivers crossed the Hudson on the ferry for the last time and returned via the new bridge.

The Dutchess and the Beacon were sold for scrap, but the Orange fought on for life a little longer. An entrepreneur bought the boat and refurbished it slightly for use as a passenger boat to carry tourists from Manhattan to the 1964 New York Worlds
Fair. The boat had outlived its usefulness, though, as slow speed and frequent breakdowns doomed the service. Before the end of the year, the Orange was also taken out of the water.

Since 1963 over 50 million vehicles have crossed the Newburgh-Beacon Bridges. The route has become the major commercial corridor between the Midwest and northern New England.

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