The West Point Military Reservation, home of the United States Military Academy, lies on the banks of the Hudson River in the Hudson Highlands some fifty miles north of New York City. Its service to the nation began in the American Revolution long before it became a training and educational institution for future Army officers. Today it is the oldest active military post in the country to have flown the nation's flag. George Washington understood the significance of the Hudson River and West Point’s location. He would champion the fortifications on the Hudson throughout the war. Ultimately, the works at West Point would pose a challenge to the British so formidable that they chose never to attack them. This work details the history and significance of the Highlands during the Revolution, as well as the hardships endured by soldiers and workers who toiled without benefit of modern machinery in a primeval landscape. Descriptions of the planning, building, and equipping of the fortifications reveal how an eighteenth-century society and economy were able to accomplish so much in a revolutionary environment that Washington considered the “key of America.”