Albany, New York

Albany (/ˈɔːlbəni/ ^ⓘ AWL-bə-nee) is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldest city in New York, and the county seat of and most populous city in Albany County. Albany's population was 99,224 at the 2020 census and estimated at 101,317 in 2024. The city is the economic and cultural core of New York State's Capital District, a metropolitan area including the nearby cities and suburbs of Colonie, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs. With an estimated 913,000 residents, it is the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the state.

The Hudson River area was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican.^[9] The area was settled by Dutch colonists, who built Fort Nassau in 1614 for fur trading and Fort Orange in 1624. In 1664, the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city Albany in honor of the Scottish title of the Duke of York (later James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland): the Duke of Albany.^[10][11] The city was officially chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York in 1797 after the formation of the United States. Albany is the oldest surviving settlement of the original British Thirteen Colonies north of Virginia.^[12]

In the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade and transportation. The city lies toward the north end of the navigable Hudson River. It was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, connecting to the Great Lakes, and was home to some of the earliest railroads in the world. In the 1920s a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in Albany. In the latter part of the 20th century, Albany's population shrank because of urban sprawl and suburbanization. In the 1990s, the New York State Legislature approved for the city a US$234 million building and renovation plan, which spurred redevelopment downtown.^[13] In the early 21st century, Albany's high-technology industry grew, significantly in nanotechnology.^[14][15]

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