TROY. An important manufacturing city and the county-seat of Rensselaer County, N. Y., on the Hudson River, at the head of steam navi gation, 6 miles above Albany, and 151 miles north of New York City (Map: New York, G 3). It is on the New York Central and Hudson River, the Delaware and Hudson, the Boston and Maine, and the Rutland railroads; and of transportation is afforded by the Erie and the Champlain canals on the opposite side of the river. Four bridges here span the Hudson, including that of the Delaware and Hudson Rail road and the Congress Street Bridge; also the Waterford Bridge, finished in 1804, the oldest wooden covered bridge in the United States.
Troy is situated partly on level ground along the river front, the site rising to the east in a range of hills, the highest elevation being Mount Ida. The city is regularly laid out. There are 140 acres in the parks open to the public, of which Beman Park is the most important. Besides this, the city has acquired a new park site on War ren's Hill overlooking the Hudson. Lagoon Island, in the Hudson, midway between Troy and Albany, is a popular resort, with bath houses, athletic grounds, and ,other features. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument is in Washington Square. Oakwood Cemetery is of interest, for its natural beauty; it has also a number of fine monuments and the Earl Memorial Chapel, one of the finest crematories in the world. Among edifices of note are the court-house, post-office, the savings-bank building with the music hall, the Rowe Memorial building, and the Bart Memorial building. Troy is the seat of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (q.v.), one of the leading schools of its class in the country, and of the Emma Willard Seminary, one of the first schools established for the higher education of women. There are several libraries in the city. The Troy Hospital and the Samari tan Hospital are important charitable institu tions: there is a fine orphan asylum in the Eng lish style of the fifteenth century; the Gurley Memorial and the Sage Memorial may also be noted.
Industrially, Troy ranks fifth among the cities of the State, its manufacturing establishments in the census year 1900 having had $23,532,000 capital and an output valued at $28,209,000. It enjoys the advantages of good water power, ob tained partly from the State dam across the Hudson above the city, and of excellent transpor tation facilities, its railroad lines being supple mented by two great waterways, the Hudson River and the Erie Canal. The city is well
known for the manufacture of shirts, collars, and cuffs, having been long the principal centre in the United States for the production of these goods. Other important manufactures are iron and steel, foundry and machine shop products,• laundry machinery, engineering instruments, bells, malt liquors, hosiery and knit goods, paper and wood pulp, paints, brick and terra cotta products, and flouring and grist mill products. Among metal products stoves occupy a promi nent place.
Troy is governed sunder the regular State char ter for cities of the second class, which went into operation January 1, 1900. The government is vested in a mayor and common council, elected every two years, and in various administrative departments, for further explanation of which see paragraph on Administration under ALBANY. The comptroller, treasure•, police justices, and as sessor are chosen by popular election; other offi cials are appointed by the mayor. The city clerk is elected by the common council. More than $1, 000,000 is spent annually by the city for main tenance and operation, the principal items being: Schools, about $215,000; streets, $125,000: nonce department. $112.000; hospitals, asylums, and other charitable institutions, $89,000; municipal lighting, $83,000; interest on debt, $83,000; wa ter-works, $77,000; lire department, $64,000. The water-wo•ks, which represent an outlay of $1,856,774, are the property of the municipality. The net debt of the city in 1902 was $2,078.531; the assessed valuation of real and personal prop erty, $56,924,599. The population, in 1800, was 4926; in 1850, 28,785; in 1870, 46,465; in 18s0, 56,747; in 1890, 60,956; in 1900, 60,651. The village of Lansingburg, which in 1900 had a population of 12,595, became a part of Troy on January 1, 1901.
The site now occupied by Troy was included in the Van Rensselaer grant of 1629, and in 1659, with the consent of the patroon, was bought from the Indians by Jan Barentsen Wemp. In 1720 Derick Van der Lleyden obtained possession of a large farm here, and it was on this farm, still owned by the Van der Hoyden family, that a town, most of whose early settlers were New England ers, was laid out in 17S7. The place was called Van der Hoyden's Ferry and Ashley's Ferry until 1789, when the present name was adopted. to 1794 Troy was incorporated as a village, and in 1816 it was chartered as a city. Consult: Weise, Troy's One Hundred Years (Troy. 1891).