Troy

Troy, capital of Rensselaer county, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, at the head of steamboat navigation, and 5 miles by rail above Albany, is built upon an alluvial plain 3 miles long and on the hills to the east (the southernmost known as Mount Ida). The most noticeable buildings are the marble court-house, the Troy Savings Bank building, including a fine music-hall, and several of the fifty churches. The city contains a high school, the Rensselaer polytechnic, and a Roman Catholic seminary. Cotton, hosiery, paper, stoves, car-wheels, bells, engines, machinery, axles, stone-ware, mathematical instruments, &c. are manufactured, and there are foundries, breweries, distilleries, carriage-factories, flour-mills, and a number of shirt and collar factories employing 8000 girls. Steamers run daily in summer to New York. Two bridges cross the Hudson to West Troy (q.v.). Troy was settled by the Dutch in 1659, and incorporated in 1816. Pop. (1850) 28,785; (1880) 56,747; (1890) 60,956.