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Albany Mall.
New York
Albany, the capital city of New York
Settled Incorporated Elevation Population Metro
1614 1686
378 ft 97,904 1,170,483,
Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River and 135 miles (220 km) north of the City of New York. The area’s is the 58th largest in the country.
The first Europeans to settle at Albany were Dutch colonists. They built Fort Nassau in 1614 and Fort Orange in 1624. The fur trade attracted settlers who founded a village called Beverwijck near Fort Orange. In 1664, after the Dutch were defeated by the English, the English took over the settlement and renamed the city as Albany, in honor of the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland. (The name Albany comes from the Gaelic name for Scotland: Alba)
The city became the capital of New York State in 1797, after New York became an independent state within the United States. Albany is the longest continuously chartered city in the United States.
Because Albany is at the northern end of the navigable Hudson River, it was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal connecting New York City to the Great Lakes. This was also why it became home to some of the earliest railroad systems in the world. In 1810, Albany was one of the ten most populous cities in the United States.
However, over the 19th century, many industrial cities grew elsewhere in the United States, and many old industries such as iron working and railroad making declined, resulting in Albany becoming mainly a service and political center.
Although many historic districts have been preserved, the trend in the 1960s to build big, brash developments, has meant that the historic areas do not easily blend with the towers around the Empire State Plaza
Albany’s charter.
North Pearl St, 1800. The influence of Dutch people can be seen in the stepped roof line, typical of older Dutch houses.