It is located on the western edge of that county on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany.

Troy has close ties to Albany, New York and nearby Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital District.

Due to the confluence of major waterways and a geography that supported water power, the American Industrial Revolution took hold in this area, making Troy reputedly the fourth-wealthiest city in America around the turn of the 20th century.

The land between the creeks, which makes up most of today's downtown and South Troy neighborhood along the Hudson River, was owned by Annape.

These parcels of land were sold to the Dutch between 1630 and 1657, and each purchase was overseen and signed by Skiwias, the sachem—the political leader of the indigenous people—at the time.

[a] Northern and Western New York was a theater of the War of 1812, and militia and regular army forces were led by Stephen Van Rensselaer of Troy.

Its author has long been believed to have been Clement Clarke Moore, but now is regarded by some as having been Henry Livingston Jr. Scientific and technical proficiency was supported by the presence of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), one of the highest-ranked engineering schools in the country.

RPI was founded in 1824, and eventually absorbed the campus of the short-lived liberal arts-based Troy University, which closed in 1862 during the Civil War.

Rensselaer founded RPI for the "application of science to the common purposes of life," and it is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world.

The trade was vastly increased after the construction of the Erie Canal, with its eastern terminus directly across the Hudson River from Troy at Cohoes in 1825.

Troy's one-time great wealth was produced in the steel industry, with the first American Bessemer converter erected on the Wynantskill Creek, a stream with falls in a small valley at the south end of the city.

Later, ore and coal from the Midwest were shipped via the Erie Canal to Troy and were processed before being sent down the Hudson River to New York City.

The iron and steel also were used by the extensive federal arsenal located—as it is today—across the Hudson at Watervliet, a community then called West Troy.

Today's sports scene is quite different.The Tri-City ValleyCats, a minor league professional baseball team, calls the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium at Hudson Valley Community College home.

In 1892, poll watcher Robert Ross was shot dead and his brother was wounded by operatives of Mayor Edward Murphy, later a U.S. senator, after uncovering a man committing voter fraud.

[8] The initial emphasis on heavier industry later spawned a wide variety of highly engineered mechanical and scientific equipment.

Troy also was home to a manufacturer of racing shells that used impregnated paper in a process that presaged the later use of fiberglass, Kevlar, and carbon-fiber composites.

In 1900, Troy annexed Lansingburgh, a former town and village whose standing dates back prior to the War of Independence, in Rensselaer County.

In addition to the strong presence of the early American steel industry, Troy also was a manufacturing center for shirts, shirtwaists, detachable collars and cuffs.

Her patented collars and cuffs first were manufactured by Maullin & Blanchard, which eventually was absorbed by Cluett, Peabody & Company.

After the passage of Prohibition, and given the strict control of Albany by the O'Connell political machine, Troy became a way station for an illegal alcohol trade from Canada to New York City.

Likewise, the stricter control of morality laws in the neighboring New England states encouraged the development of openly operating speakeasies and brothels in Troy.

Gangsters such as "Legs Diamond" conducted their business in Troy, giving the city a somewhat colorful reputation through World War II.

Vonnegut wrote Player Piano in 1952, based on his experiences working as a public relations writer at nearby General Electric.

[22] Her husband was a prominent blacksmith who complained to his wife that after coming home from work he had no clean white shirts for the next day.

Mrs. Montague solved this problem by cutting collars off of her husbands shirts, and reattaching clean ones for him to wear when needed.

[23] For close to a hundred years, Cluett, Peabody & Company was the largest industry in town, with a variety of products including detachable collars, arrow shirts, and other apparel.

Uncle Sam Atrium is an enclosed urban shopping mall, office space, and parking garage in downtown Troy.

With many examples of intact 19th-century architecture, particularly in its Central Troy Historic District, this has helped to lure several major movies to film in Troy, including Ironweed, The Age of Innocence (filmed partially in the Paine mansion), Scent of a Woman, The Bostonians, The Emperor's Club, and The Time Machine.

As home to many art, literature, and music lovers, the city hosts many free shows during the summer, on River Street, in parks, and in cafes and coffee shops.