‘Albany’ Category
» posted on Thursday, September 5th, 2013 by Linda Lou Burton
Swimming Upstream
Linda Burton posting from Albany, New York – The cats are snoozing but I’m busy. Today I’m wrapping up 80% of the Journey Across America as we end our stay in the 40th capital city. For the last two months, I feel like I’ve been a salmon swimming upstream, going backwards in history. In Saint Paul, I learned about Pigs Eye Parrant and Lucien Galtier, two names that are part of the city’s beginnings. Pigs Eye moved west from Michigan; Father Galtier came from France by order of Rome and only stayed long enough to establish a church and push for the city name of Saint Paul instead of Pigs Eye. Remember them? In Madison, I learned about James Doty, who came from New York; he lived in Detroit before he bought the land that he platted into the city of Madison; then he 
worked for Wisconsin statehood. (Wisconsin is still miffed over the fact that a huge chunk of land to the north belongs to Michigan, even though it is not connected to Michigan, but is a part of Wisconsin’s geography.) From there I continued east to Michigan, and Lansing, (where that huge chunk of land is justified in the land divvy-up because “Ohio got the Toledo Strip, so we got the Upper Peninsula!”). Lansing was settled because in 1835 two slick-talkers scammed some folks in Lansing, New York, who then came and settled that part of Michigan and named their new city Lansing. Meanwhile, down in Ohio, 
Columbus was settled by miners and farmers and entrepreneurs coming in via the National Road from Maryland, and a lot of former New Yorkers. Now I’m in New York; here everybody talks about Henry Hudson; Dutch names such as Van Rensselaer and Schuyler are on every post; and events of the 1600s are common conversation. History is a long-running soap opera. And I love it! » read more
» posted on Thursday, August 29th, 2013 by Linda Lou Burton
On Henry’s Behalf
Linda Burton posting from Albany, New York – A lot of good things are discovered while somebody is looking for something else, like a passage to China. The Hudson River Valley is one such example. Now, the river was there eons before Englishman Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon about as far north as where Albany sits today. That was 1609, when Henry was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to find a way to get to Asia in a hurry, where they could trade for exotic spices. Henry wasn’t the first European to observe the river; in 1524 Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano (sailing for France) sailed all around the Upper Bay; he just didn’t go as far north as Henry did. And before Verrazano came along, the Iroquois, who lived along both banks of the lower portion of the river (now 
New Jersey and Manhattan) had already named the river “Muhheakantuck” – translate that to “river that flows two ways.” Because the Hudson River is subject to the rise and fall of the tides; as far north as Albany there is a four-foot tide twice a day. The river comes out of Henderson Lake in the Adirondack Mountains and flows 315 miles south before emptying into Upper New York 
Bay. Its lower half is a tidal estuary; tidal water influences the flow as far north as Troy. I learned that today while sailing on the river myself, on a daily afternoon run of the Dutch Apple Cruises. The cruise started, appropriately enough, with a full-on description of the buildings of Albany alongside the river; with particular attention called to the 800-pound weathervane atop the SUNY headquarters. Hard to make out from a distance, but the narrator assured us it was an exact replica of Henry’s ship, the Half Moon. » read more
» posted on Tuesday, August 27th, 2013 by Linda Lou Burton
It’s Really, Really Old
Linda Burton posting from Albany, New York – Age denotes character. Isn’t that what you’ve always heard? If that’s true, then Albany has character aplenty, because Albany is old. Really, really old. It is the longest continuously chartered city in the United States, tracing back to July 22, 1686 when Governor Dongan issued a charter fixing boundaries, setting up a municipal government, naming the first officers, and establishing Albany as the sole market town in the upper Hudson River region. Mayor Pieter Schuyler took the oath of office July 26, 1686, and the rest, as 
they say, is history. But the European history of the area goes back even further, to 1609, when a fellow by the name of Henry Hudson sailed a ship up the river that now bears his name. This led the Dutch to lay claim to the area; by 1624 the Dutch West India Company had built a trading post on the west bank of the river and named it Fort Orange. There were soldiers for protection, employees to conduct business, and farmers to provide food. By the 1640s a fur trading community had evolved north of the Fort; it took the name Beverwyck. Fast forward; the Fort became less profitable to the Company; there was a devastating Hudson River flood; New Netherland fell to the English. Beverwyck was renamed Albany in 
1664, in honor of the Duke of Albany, who later became England’s King James II. The English built a new fort, and that brings us back to the Dongan Charter of 1686. Those are the bones of the Albany story; after a visit to the Empire State Plaza I’ll begin to flesh it out. That’s where the castle-like State Capitol and the sleekly modern Cultural Education Center do a face off, across shimmering pools. » read more
» posted on Sunday, August 25th, 2013 by Linda Lou Burton
A Good Ride
Linda Burton posting from Albany, New York – Some days are more perfect than others. Today was one of my more perfect days as I drove from Buffalo to Albany. My shoes were still wet from yesterday. But who can complain, when your shoes are soaked by the roaring waters of Niagara Falls. The event is a watery blur in my mind and my pictures don’t help; they mostly show shiny blue ponchos, required clothing on a Maid of the Mist boat ride. I was wearing one myself, but it didn’t prevent the torrent of water that sloshed in over my shoes. Again, and again, and again. 
Children shrieked with laughter and mothers gasped as the boat pulled perilously close to American Falls, and then equally close to the Canadian side, and the even bigger Horseshoe Falls. I pulled the front of my poncho down to cover my non-waterproof cameras and blinked the water out of my eyes, unable to hear the narrator, just listening to the roar. And getting wet. Now, that was a good ride; one of those things in life everybody ought to do at least once. I was feeling pretty chipper as I loaded the car this morning in my squishy shoes under blue sky in 70 degree air, perfect. On the outskirts of Buffalo I entered the Toll Plaza 
for the I-90 Thruway and got my ticket for another good ride, straight through to Albany. The New York Thruway isn’t fancy and the pavement looks old, but there were no potholes, no construction cones, and few trucks. And best of all, every thirty miles there was a service plaza offering at least three restaurants in a food-court setting, fuel pumps, and information about New York. I stopped at the Pembroke Plaza first, coffee in mind. » read more