Albany and Schenectady Railroad

It was conceived as a means of allowing Erie Canal passengers to quickly bypass the circuitous Cohoes Falls via steam powered trains.

On December 28, 1825, Schenectady County resident (Duanesburg) George William Featherstonhaugh (pronounced Fenshaw[2]) ran a newspaper notice announcing the formation of the Mohawk & Hudson Rail Road Company.

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.

By this matchless exercise of skill, we fly with a smooth and even course along once impassible barriers, the valleys are filled, the mountains laid low, and distance seems annihilated.

Having thus, as if by some invisible agency flown the distance of 16 miles in 40 minutes, at Schenectady I took passage on the Hudson and Erie Canal for Buffalo.