ALBANY. Capital of New York State, and county seat of Albany Co., and all important railroad and commercial city. It is on the west bank of the Hudson River, nearly six miles below the head of navigation, 145 miles north of New York City and about 200 miles west of Boston (Map: New York, G 3).
A narrow alluvial plain extends along the rites, and from this the ground rises sharply to a sandy plateau about two hundred feet above tide level, with valleys separating the four ridges into which the slope is divided. The principal streets are Broadway, and North and South Pearl streets, which run parallel to the river, and State Street, which runs westward, ascend ing the face of the hill at a very steep grade. The most striking feature as well as the most impor tant edifice in Albany is theCapitol.which is built of Maine granite, in the Renaissance style. Since its corner-stone was laid, in 1871, it has cost over twenty-four million dollars. The edifice has been built with the advantage of large ideas and limitless resources, and the disadvan tages of a succession of architects with changing views; these circumstances have left their im print on the structure. But when all has been said in criticism of details, the general plan, and unused possibilities, it must be ranked among the great buildings of the country. Within are rooms for the Assembly. Senate. Court of Appeals, the State Library of over 430,000 vol umes, the governor, and other State officials. :Many relics of the Revolution and Civil War find place in its spacious corridors. Facing the Cap itol are the State Hall. and the city ball, of red sandstone. with Romanesque doorways and ma jestic campaniles. The Federal building, contain ing the custom house and post office, is at the foot of State Street, and on the same avenue, about a block below the Capitol, is the State Museum of Natural History. In the residence
districts, the most important architectural fea tures are the churches, four of which have more than a local interest: The North Dutch church, M. Peter's Church, "one of the richest specimens of French Gothic in this country," the cathedral of All Saints, and the cathedral of the Immacu late Conception, with lofty double spires and a spacious interior treated with taste and dignity.
Other important buildings are the new Union Station. the Hotel Ten Eyck, the Albany Acad emy, Harmanus Bleeckcr Hall, and the State Arsenal. The second Van Rensselaer manor house, built in 1765, was removed in 1893 to the campus of Williams College at Williamstown, Mass. The old Schuyler mansion is now used as an orphan asylum by the Sisters of Charity. Al bany is the seat of a State normal college, and contains the law and medical departments of Union University at Schenectady, and also Dud ley Observatory, in the southwest corner of the city. Near the latter are the pavilions of the new hospital, built in 1899; and in the same section is the State penitentiary, opened in 1848, which confines annually between 300 and 400 prisoners, the majority sentenced for short terms.
The city has 470 acres devoted to parks, the largest of which, Washington Park, in the west ern part of the city, contains a lake 1700 feet long, and two fine bronzes: Calverley's statue of "Robert Burns," and Rhind's statue of "Moses at the Rock of Horeb." In the beau tiful Rural Cemetery about four miles north of the city is the tomb of President Arthur.