Orange County, NY

Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county is in the state’s Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley.

Orange County is in southeastern New York State, directly north of the New Jersey-New York border, west of the Hudson River, east of the Delaware River and northwest of New York City. It borders the New York counties of Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester, as well as Passaic and Sussex counties in New Jersey and Pike County in Pennsylvania.

Orange County is the only county in New York State which borders both the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.

Orange County is where the Great Valley of the Appalachians finally opens up and ends. The western corner is set off by the Shawangunk Ridge. The area along the Rockland County border (within Harriman and Bear Mountain state parks) and south of Newburgh is part of the Hudson Highlands. The land in between is the valley of the Wallkill River. In the southern portion of the county the Wallkill valley expands into a wide glacial lake bed known as the Black Dirt Region for its fertility.

The highest point is Schunemunk Mountain, at 1,664 feet (507 m) above sea level. The lowest is sea level along the Hudson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_New_York

Lake Washington

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Lake Washington was expanded and put into service as a reservoir in 1907, although it had been providing water to its predecessor, Monell's Pond, since 1852. The dam has been raised many times since then to increase capacity.

In 2016 the city briefly declared a water emergency and started using Browns Pond, its backup supply, when levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) near the federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines of 200 parts per trillion (ppt) were found in the lake. A pond on the Stewart Air Guard Base from which Silver Stream, one of Lake Washington's tributaries, rises, had levels of 5,900 ppt. 

Downtown Newburgh

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Downtown Newburgh

A look at Newburgh, looking up from the waterfront with Broadway in the center of the photo.

Newburgh – Beacon 1947

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A series of topographic maps shows the twin cities before the superhighways and the Newburgh-Beacon bridge.