The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad was the first railroad built in the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and one of the

first railroads in the United States This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks. Railroad-like entities (1700s ...

. It was so-named because it linked the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

with the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

at Albany. It was conceived as a means of allowing

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

passengers to quickly bypass the circuitous

Cohoes Falls Cohoes Falls ''Kanien'ké:ha'' (Kanyenkeha or Mohawk language) for "a boat is in the water / is actively submerged"">Mohawk language">''Kanien'ké:ha'' (Kanyenkeha or Mohawk language) for "a boat is in the water / is actively submerged"is a wat ...

via steam powered trains. The railroad was incorporated on April 17, 1826,Christopher T. Baer, !-- Moved Link: http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1826%20Apr%2005.pdf --->http://www.prrths.com/newprr_files/Hagley/PRR_hagley_intro.htm Pennsylvania RR Chronology Sunday, January 20, 2013, ''A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT'' © 2004-2011 Pennsylvania Technical and Historical Society p.5 as the Mohawk & Hudson Company and opened for public service on August 9, 1831. On April 19, 1847, the company name was changed to the Albany & Schenectady Railroad. The railroad was consolidated into the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

on May 17, 1853.

History

On December 28, 1825,

Schenectady County Schenectady County () is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 158,061. The county seat is Schenectady, New York, Schenectady. The ...

resident (Duanesburg)

George William Featherstonhaugh George William Featherstonhaugh ( /ˈfɪərstənhɔː/ '' FEER-stən-haw''; 9 April 1780, in London – 28 September 1866, in Le Havre) was a British-American geologist and geographer. He was one of the proposers of the Albany and Schenectady Ra ...

(pronounced Fenshaw) ran a newspaper notice announcing the formation of the Mohawk & Hudson Rail Road Company. The intention was to bypass the

between Albany and

, cutting time for the trip from a whole day to under one hour. The Mohawk & Hudson became the first chartered railroad in New York State on April 17, 1826. Construction began in August 1830 and the railroad opened September 24, 1831, on a 16-mile route between Albany and Schenectady through the Pine Bush region that separates both cities. The civil engineer Peter Fleming surveyed the right-of-way and provided the cost estimates. Fleming resigned in 1830 and was replaced by

John B. Jervis John Bloomfield Jervis (December 14, 1795 – January 12, 1885) was an American civil engineer. America's leading consulting engineer of the antebellum era (1820–60), Jervis designed and supervised the construction of five of America's earliest ...

. The tracks were made of strap rail resting on stone blocks rather than crossties that later became standard. Initially the line ended outside the two cities to avoid steep grades — in Albany the line ended near the current intersection of Madison and Western Avenues — and the passengers covered the remaining distance in stagecoaches. Later at each end an inclined plane with a fixed steam engine was used to raise and lower the train. DeWitt Clinton (locomotive)

The

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely res ...

locomotive, built by the

West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and oth ...

in New York, made its first test run on July 2, 1831. After some hesitation it was decided that the engine would burn wood rather than coal. The official opening took place on September 24, 1831, with approximately eighty politicians and dignitaries. The DeWitt Clinton, pulling three cars, covered the route in forty-seven minutes. Another eight cars had to be pulled by horses. In 1832, a rider wrote in his journal.

References

External links

Mohawk & Hudson Railroad details and map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albany Schenectady Railroad Defunct New York (state) railroads Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad Erie Canal Schenectady, New York Railway companies established in 1847 Railway companies disestablished in 1853 Transportation in Albany, New York History of Albany, New York 1826 establishments in New York (state) Transportation in Albany County, New York American companies disestablished in 1853 American companies established in 1847