On this Easter Sunday, Matt McGranaghan and I were driving up the Delaware Valley on the way to Matt's parents' place in Hancock, New York, when I decided, somewhat spontaneously, that we should try to find the place where the three states came together. I naively assumed that the point would be in the middle of the Delaware River, but hope to find a sign or marker on the shore, or at least be able to allign with the border along one shore and be sure I was photographing the part of the river conatining the point. (Since this was the ad hoc visit to a Tri-State point that started the project, I had not researched the topographic maps before-hand.)
Since we were approaching from the southwest, we first tried from the Pennsylvania shore. After driving around in Matamoros, Pennsylvania, and looking at the river from various points, we realized that it would be pretty hard from that side, since the entire shore was in one state. On the east bank of the Delaware, however, we should be able to find the New York - New Jersey State Line, and then trace it out into the river. So, we crossed the bridge from Matamoros to Port Jervis, New York, and then drove southward looking for signs of New Jersey while staying as close to the shore as we could. When we saw the first New Jersey road sign, we were at Tristate Campground, which appeared to have property stretching to the river. We drove into the campground, hoping to see someone we could ask about the Tri-State point, and for permission to look around. We saw no-one, but walked to the top of a steep bank running down to the river. We could not see any indication of the border. We therefore backtracked and drove slowly northward, and pinned down the New York - New Jersey line to within a dozen meters or so. To the west of the road, a dirt track ran toward the bank of the river at about the right orientation, with a parallel chain-link fence to the north. Since we reasonend that the state line must also be a property boundary, and since there were no signs prohibiting entry, we walked dow the dirt road to the river. Looking out into the river, we could see a point of land extending down stream, and at its southern end there appeared to be some sort of monument or marker! And, there were some people fishing, and a car parked nearby, indicating road access!
We drove northward into New York state, back toward Port Jervis, looking for a road to the left that would cross the nearer stream (a tributary or channel of the Delaware) and lead west onto the point of land. We found one, turned left, over a small bridge, and then left again into a cemetary. Driving southward through the cemetary, we eventually drove under the Interstate bridge and reached the monument where the car was parked. It did indeed commemorate the Tri-State point. And on the shore, a fisherman sat on a smaller, flat-topped monument that had a benchmark indicating the exact point. The fisherman was kind enough to stand up and allow us to examine and photograph the marker, which had three lines from the benchmark, indicating the three state boundaries, with the two-letter state codes in the appropriate zones. The search had taken more than an hour, but it had been fun, and the idea of visiting more of these, and perhaps all, seemed like it would be an exciting long-term project.