Albany
"Albany counts 2500 inhabitants. It's a fairly pretty city, well situated.
It much resembles Amiens. The Hudson, which at this point has lost all its
grandeur and majesty, quite recalled to me the Somme.
Albany is the political capital of the state of New-York. It owes this
advantage to its central position. In the last ten years it has doubled its
population, and according to every indication its growth should not slow
down. The Hudson gives it the easiest means of communication with New-York,
which is the intermediary between it and Europe; and there is a canal which
joins the waters of the Hudson with those of Lake Erie and which by this
means makes Albany the market of all the peoples of that part of the west.
These communications are soon to be rendered even more easy by a road in
iron which is being built at this moment and which will go from Albany to
Schenectady.
Beaumont (Pierson, 176)
Itinerary