The Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey is about twelve miles long and half a mile wide, containing 2,500 acres of wild Hudson River shorefront, uplands, and cliffs. It is the original component of a unique interstate park system that now contains over 100,000 acres managed jointly by the states of New Jersey and New York. The first concerted effort to preserve the Palisades, in the 1890s, had been led by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, which was based in New York City. The Society at last found an ally on the Jersey side of the river in 1895, when the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs joined the fight. The women set out to persuade the state legislature to pass a bill to join with New York to protect the Palisades. By 1900 New Jersey Governor Foster Voorhees was able to sign just such a bill. The same year, in New York, a similar bill also passed and was signed by Governor Theodore Roosevelt. Vital financial support came from J. P. Morgan, who donated over $125,000 to close the Carpenter Brothers’ Quarry in Fort Lee, the largest and most notorious of the Palisades quarries. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission was founded in 1900 and has been preserving the scenic beauty of the Palisades for over a century. The park was officially opened to the public in 1909.   

The Trust grant will help fund a revision to an existing National Historic Landmark designation.