Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson River
Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features the legendary region of Sleepy Hollow, a rocky landscape with forests and streams east of the Hudson River.
In 1978, when the famous American author Washington Irving was 15 years old, he was sent to stay with a family friend in the lower Hudson River Valley to dodge a yellow fever epidemic in New York City.
Irving stayed in Tarrytown about 25 miles north of Manhattan on the eastern side of the river. According to NASA, Irving delighted in exploring the verdant, rocky landscapes north of Tarrytown, particularly an area later named Sleepy Hollow, where he eventually settled.
Irving was ultimately buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in 1859, and the town celebrates its literary history with a festival each year.
“The place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie,” Irving wrote in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
“The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.”
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
