Edgewater is a thin ribbon of a town squeezed between the Hudson River and the foot of the Palisades, the dark basalt cliffs that line the New Jersey side of the river opposite Manhattan. Across the water, so close it almost looks touchable, lies the Upper West Side, with Riverside Park, the tower of Riverside Church and Grant's Tomb visible above the trees.
The Palisades are what make this place. They formed some two hundred million years ago when molten rock pushed up into layers of sediment and cooled into tall columns, and they rise up to a hundred and fifty metres above the river. In the nineteenth century, quarrymen were blasting them apart for building stone and gravel, until a campaign by conservation groups and wealthy patrons led to the creation of the Palisades Interstate Park in the early twentieth century, one of the first parks of its kind in America.
Edgewater itself was once industrial, with factories, a Ford assembly plant and docks along the river. Most of that has gone, replaced by apartment towers, shopping centres and a waterfront walkway with views over the river. There is a large Japanese shopping complex here, a favourite of the region's Japanese community, where you can eat noodles and sushi after a long day.
The riding into Edgewater is short but special. River Road follows the base of the cliffs along the Hudson, a winding road with views of Manhattan opening between the buildings. Up on top, Palisades Avenue and the Palisades Interstate Parkway run along the cliff tops through forest, and scenic overlooks give tremendous views across to Manhattan and up the river. Traffic is heavy on weekdays, and approaching the George Washington Bridge, just north in Fort Lee, can be painful at rush hour.
Tanks, sandwiches and espresso are all a few blocks away. After a ride all the way from Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island, or through the Catskill high peaks, finishing here, with the whole length of Manhattan glittering across the river in the evening, is a fitting end to a long day on the bike.