First inauguration of Barack Obama inauguration. More than 180 of the Tuskegee Airmen attended as invited guests for the inauguration. The five-person crew of US Airways Flight 1549 attended the swearing-in ceremony, including Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the aircraft in the Hudson River near Manhattan after losing both engines due to a bird strike just after departing LaGuardia Airport. Eighty-seven-year-old Sarah Obama led a group of Obama's Kenyan relatives from his father's home village of Kogelo. Other relatives who traveled from Kenya as guests included Obama's aunt, Maggie Obama, his uncle, Sayid Obama, as well as his half-brother Malik Obama. Also, Kenya youth
History of the Hudson River year as a continuation of the Troy and Greenbush south to New York City, and was completed in 1851. In 1866 the Hudson River Bridge opened over the river between Greenbush and Albany, enabling through traffic between the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central Railroad west to Buffalo. When the Poughkeepsie Bridge opened in 1889, it became the longest single-span bridge in the world. The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway began at Weehawken Terminal and ran up the west shore of the Hudson as a competitor to the merged New York Central and Hudson River Railroad.