Castle Point Lookout

You are standing at the highest point in Hoboken, reaching an elevation of one hundred feet above the Hudson River. Early European navigators who sailed past this spot in the seventeenth century famously noted the distinct, green-veined serpentine rock that forms this bluff. The name Castle Point itself is a corruption of an original nickname, Castille Point, given because the high, rugged crag reminded sailors of the rocky coast of Spain near the Rock of Gibraltar. Long before it became a landmark for explorers, the local Lenape people valued this same geological formation for its abundant soapstone, which they used to craft the tobacco pipes that gave their land the name Hobocan Hacklingh.