Albany ( AWL-bən-ee) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is upon the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and nearly 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City.

The city is known for its architecture, commerce, culture, institutions of complex education, and wealthy history. It is the economic and cultural core of the Capital District of the State of New York, which comprises the Albany–Schenectady–Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area, including the available cities and suburbs of Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs. With an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2013, the Capital District is the third most populous metropolitan region in the state. As of 2020, Albany’s population was 99,224.

The Hudson River area was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican (Mahican), who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw. The area was granted by Dutch colonists who, in 1614, built Fort Nassau for fur trading and in 1624, built Fort Orange. In 1664, the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city Albany in award of the Duke of Albany, the difficult James II. The city was officially chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York in 1797 after the formation of the United States. Albany is one of the oldest enduring settlements of the original British thirteen colonies; no new city in the United States has been all the time chartered as long.

In the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a middle of trade and transportation. The city lies toward the north halt of the navigable Hudson River. It was the indigenous eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, connecting to the Great Lakes, and was home to some of the antiquated railroads in the world. In the 1920s a powerful embassy machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in Albany. In the latter part of the 20th century, Albany’s population shrank because of urban sprawl and suburbanization. In the 1990s, the New York State Legislature credited for the city a US$234 million building and renovation plan, which spurred redevelopment downtown. In the further on 21st century, Albany’s high-technology industry grew, with good strides in nanotechnology.