America and Albany:
the Imperial Age 1880
Settled as early as 1611, Albany is the oldest continually occupied city of the original thirteen colonies. Unlike the first English settlements in America, Beverwyck, as Albany was first known, was founded entirely for profit. The beaver was an important staple for European fashion in the early seventeenth century, and through the trading of pelts Albany became a powerful early center for commerce and later industry. Located on the Hudson River midway between the port of New York and the St. Lawrence River, the city was long coveted by European powers. During the American Revolution, Albany was the target of a major British invasion that culminated at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. The victory for the American forces was the turning point of the conflict and lead directly to recognition of the United States as a new nation.
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Albany became the Capital of New York State in 1788, which further enhanced the city's commercial importance, and gave it a preeminence in government affairs that it maintains to this day.
In 1825 the Erie Canal opened at the Port of Albany. The canal, the longest built since the Roman Empire, accelerated Albany's growth, and the city rapidly expanded to become a leader of the Industrial Revolution. The first railroad in the country originated in Albany in 1831, and within a few years had developed into the New York Central Raildoad. During the American Civil War, Albany and the Capital District supplied a majority of the armaments, uniforms and materiel used by the Northern forces. After the war, Albany helped to rebuild the South with Adirondack pine shipped down the Erie Canal and out of the Port of Albany. With the peace of 1865, the nation entered into an era of renewed greatness and prosperity. For the next forty years, Albany, as capital of the nation's then wealthiest and most industrialized state, was transformed from a small provincial town into a city, which reflected the new imperial attitudes of the late nineteenth century. The architectural splendor and appointments of the Cathedral of All Saints stand as a monument to this age.