Albany is the name of
both a county and the city located within it. The city of Albany is the
capital of New York State and part of an area called locally the
Capital District. This size of this district varies from a minimum of
the cities of Albany, Schenectady & Troy, can include the counties
of Albany, Schenectady & Rensselaer and by some counts also
includes the county of Saratoga. Detailed maps of this area can be
found at the CDRPC Site:
Capital District Atlas Maps
.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online (http://www.britannica.com), the City of Albany is
"The heart of a metropolitan area ... a port city, the northern
terminus of the deepwater Hudson River Channel, and a natural
transshipment point between oceangoing vessels and the New York State
Canal System routes to the Great Lakes." There
are nine towns in Albany County, aranged in an aproximation of at 3 by
3 grid. In addition, there are the cities of Cohoes, Watervliet
& Albany as well as several incorporated villages.
Nestled in the corner formed by
the intersection of the Mohawk & Hudson Rivers, Albany County is
about 150 miles north of New York City and a similar distance east of
Boston. The county is 524 square miles in size and roughly square in
shape. Elevation is slightly above sea level in the remains of alluvial
flats along the Hudson River. Above the steep valley sides directly
adjacent to the Hudson River, the land rises slowly through the hill
towns of the Heldebergs until it rises abruptly about 200 feet along
the Thatcher Escarpment before dropping towards Schoharie Creek in the
next county. The northeast is part of the remains of a pre-glacial lake
bed, called Lake Albany. In addition to the very wide
valley that marks the former valley, the Pine Bush
is the remains of a delta formed where the proto-Mohawk River entered
the old glacial lake. The Helderbergs are the remains of a truely
ancient ocean floor and are a geologist's dream with their clearly
visible layers and frequently found fossils (which you should never
remove from the state park where many are found).
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See Cities, Towns & Villages of Albany County for a map and links to municipal web pages.
See The Formation of Albany County for a discussion of the development of Albany County's political divisions.