West Point Foundry

Great article from the Hudson River Maritime Museum featuring the Croton Aqueduct, NYC’s infrastructural response to the cholera epidemic of 1832 and the Great Fire of 1835. The West Point Foundry supplied 36-inch diameter cast iron pipe for the Harlem High Bridge, a key link of the Croton Aqueduct, allowing the novel water supply to cross the Harlem River between the Bronx and Manhattan without impeding river navigation.

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As reported in the “Cold Spring Reporter” this month in 1870:

W.W. Wilson, an employee of the West Point Foundry, was unable to work after “having met the common fate of getting iron chippings in his eye,” the Recorder said.

Without adequate eye protection, injuries of this kind were a regular occurrence in the Foundry’s machine shop and boring mill.

Looking Back in Philipstown | The Highlands Current What happened this month 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 years ago

J is for… John Ferguson Weir and "The Gun Foundry," 1864-1866.

John Ferguson Weir grew up at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his father Robert Walter Weir was a professor of drawing. His only formal art training came from his father.

In 1864, Weir spent several months studying the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, traveling back-and-forth across the Hudson by boat. He amassed sketches, photographs, and writings related to what he called in his journals “the dear Old Foundry.” Weir captured the extreme work conditions at the West Point Foundry in his completed work "The Gun Foundry."

At a time when paintings of natural landscapes were popular in the United States, Weir was praised for his industrial subject matter.

During the time of the painting, nearly 1200 workers labored at the foundry in 10-hour shifts. Production took place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The Gun Foundry," on display at the Putnam History Museum, is one of the most widely known works illustrating American industry from the period. "The Gun Foundry’s" companion piece, "Forging the Shaft," is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum Association of New York ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

The WPF’s 1865 Office Building is included in this collection of print-your-own coloring book sheets, courtesy of the Putnam History Museum

A story featuring a long-time employee of the Cornell Iron Works, more or less the corporate successor to the West Point Foundry

Ross Twp. man has seen many changes in 50-year career at Cornell Iron Works WRIGHT TWP. — Gary Tombasco started working for the former Cornell Iron Works in the Crestwood Industrial Park when he was 18. More than 50 years later, the 69-year-old resident of the Bloomingdale section of Ross Twp. still works for the company that’s n

Mysteries at the Museum host visits Putnam County - Mid Hudson News MAHOPAC – Travel Channel star and “Mysteries at the Museum” host Don Wildman stopped by the Putnam History Museum in Cold Spring last week. While there he took in some of the great West Point Foundry history on exhibit. Wildman, a Hudson Valley resident, was in Cold Spring to meet Mary Jean Ce...

“A horn [at the Foundry] would blow for the men to go to work at six o’clock, and at half-past six for breakfast; then again at seven to go to work. It would blow at twelve for dinner and at one to work. At six it would sound for the men to leave work.”

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