Paul." The
Cathedral is also a grand structure. The population of Albany is now
100,000, and its growth is due to three causes: First, the Capitol
was removed from New York to Albany in 1798. Then followed two great
enterprises, ridiculed at the time by every one as the _Fulton Folly
and Clinton's Ditch_--in other words, steam navigation, 1807, and the
Erie Canal, 1825. Its name was given in honor of the Duke of Albany,
although it is still claimed by some of the oldest inhabitants that,
in the golden age of those far-off times, when the good old burghers
used to ask the welfare of their neighbors, the answer was "All
bonnie," and hence the name of the hill-crowned city.
* * *
Canals, long winding, ope a watery flight,
And distant streams and seas and lakes unite;
From fair Albania toward the fading sun,
Back through the midland lengthening channels run.
_Joel Barlow._
* * *
To condense from H. P. Phelps's careful handbook of "Albany and the
Capitol:" in 1614 a stockaded trading-house was erected on an island
below the city, well defended for trading with the Indians.
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