They tried rocks. They tried underwater spikes. They even tried sunken ships. The colonists did anything and everything they could to stop the British from taking over the Hudson River. The American Navy was almost nonexistent in comparison to its Motherland, so stopping invaders with firepower was not an option. After deciding the rocks, spikes and sunken ships were not enough, they formed a new plan. They didn’t have a record number of boats to stop invaders, but they did have iron.
Under the direction of George Washington, and in six weeks, with the help of seven forges and ten welding fires, the revolutionaries created a chain—but this chain had links that were almost three inches thick and two to three feet long. The chain weighed 65 tons and they placed it underwater from one bank of the river to the other. The chain blocked the entire waterway for the rest of the war.
