Feature Section

Cadet Charles Bustamante of California

 

The shades of gray at West Point

There may be no better-known campus in America than West Point, set on bluffs overlooking the Hudson River at a dogleg critical to America’s independence. It is also set cheek-by-jowl next to Highland Falls, a village with fewer souls than the U.S. Military Academy’s 4,000-plus cadets.

Relations between the academy and locals are on the mend, but have been historically strained, notably by a 16,000-acre federal land grab in the 1930s – terrain that had belonged to the community, but which was needed for training. Land concessions to Highland Falls have now been made and the mayor’s son is a cadet, harking to smoother relations. Yet into this comity comes a nation at war and the inherent security required at its oldest (and perhaps most-storied) military college. Where once cadets could send out for pizza, now the pies cannot be delivered. Visitors pass through two checkpoints and provide photo identification – not quite airport-style security, but a very real sign of the times. Such security is having an effect on a community that grew up with freer give-and-take between town and gown (or in this case, locale and Long Gray Line). And into that mix is the history itself, impossible to overlook.

 

Football season, fall foliage and a fresh assembly of cadets present an ideal opportunity to examine some of the issues that make West Point a picture more nuanced than the Army-Navy game and just as surely worth a look.

The Long Gray Line
A talk with the West Point historian
By BILL FALLON

The jut of land at a narrow dogleg in the Hudson River was called West Point. It fronted a plateau fine for controlling the waterway from on high and for drilling troops. George Washington considered the spot the key to the Revolutionary War and he brought in Thaddeus Kosciuszko to defend it. At war's end, presenting his sword to Kosciuszko, Washington said, “There is no one whose character I admire more than yours.” As a cadet, Robert E. Lee and his classmates honored Kosciuszko with a monument above the strategic bluffs that drew him there.

Antagonism fades as mayor charts a fresh course
West Point and its host village don't always agree
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

Nestled in the majestic Hudson Highlands, adjacent to the United States Military Academy, the village of Highland Falls is less than 2 square miles surrounded by mountains, rivers, lakes and forest.

A destination college
50,000 will stay at West Point's Thayer Hotel this year
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

When most Americans think of West Point, they probably think of the historical significance associated with the area and the U.S. Military Academy.

When security is an economic chokehold
Unique obstacles in the shadow of West Point
By KATHY KAHN

As gaining entrance to West Point's grounds became tougher since 9/11, extracting business from those who live inside its historic gates has become as problematic. Retailers and restaurateurs who depend on U.S. Military Academy residents and visitors to bring the bacon into the village have been biting the bullet since new restrictions have been placed on base personnel and the 4,000 cadets who attend the military academy.