Port of Albany–Rensselaer
The Port of Albany–Rensselaer, widely known as the Port of Albany, is a port of entry in the United States with facilities on both sides of the Hudson River in Albany and Rensselaer, New York. Private and public port facilities have existed in both cities since the 17th century, with an increase in shipping after the Albany Basin and Erie Canal were built with public funds in 1825.
The port's modern name did not come into widespread use until 1925; the current port was constructed in 1932 under the governorship of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. It included the largest grain elevator in the world at the time. Today the grain elevator is the largest in the United States east of the Mississippi River; the port has the tallest harbor crane in the state of New York.
The port has rail connections with the Albany Port Railroad, which allows for connections with CSXT and CP Rail. It is near several interstates and the New York State Canal System. The port features several tourist attractions as well, such as, the only destroyer escort still afloat in the United States.
Geography
The Port of Albany consists of roughly, including about in Albany and in Rensselaer. It is north of New York Harbor. From New York Harbor to the Federal Dam north of Albany, the Hudson River is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. The Hudson has a deep water shipping channel across, and at Albany the river is across with a maximum fresh water draft and a mean range of tides of. The port is at sea level.History
Since the founding of Albany in 1614 as a trading post, shipping has been important to its growth and prosperity. Furs, timber, and farm produce were important exports while European people and goods were shipped in. The Dongan Charter, which established Albany as a city, made Albany the exclusive market town in the upper Hudson River Valley. From its beginning, the port consisted of hastily built docks built every spring and destroyed every winter by erosion, flooding, ice, and tidal action. Three city-owned docks were established in 1766, the northern and southern ones later being expanded into wharves.Many historically significant ships used Albany as their home port. Experiment left Albany in 1785 to become the second American ship to sail to China. In 1809 Robert Fulton's Clermont became the first commercially viable steamboat when it left Albany and sailed down the Hudson to the city of New York. In 1825 a long and wide pier was constructed from, and parallel to, Albany's shoreline. Along with two bridges the pier enclosed roughly of the Hudson River as the Albany Basin. The construction of the pier and bridges cost $119,980. The basin was located where the Erie Canal, constructed between 1818 and 1825, met the Hudson River. The basin could accommodate 1,000 canal boats and 50 steamboat moorings. Along the Erie Canal within the city's North Albany neighborhood private wharves and slips were constructed for use in the lumber trade, this soon became the large and prosperous Albany Lumber District of national importance. In 1860 Albany, along with nearby Watervliet and Troy, was the largest lumber market in the state. The Maiden Lane Bridge was constructed in 1871 over the basin to connect Albany with the east side of the river, it was open to railroad traffic only.
The Albany Port District was established in 1925 under New York law Chapter 192. This was only four years after the interstate compact that created the Port of New York Authority. In 1932 Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled a modern port to replace the aging infrastructure of the Albany Basin and the lumber district along the Erie Canal in the North Albany neighborhood. The port was constructed on around on Westerlo Island in the southern end of Albany along with approximately across the river in the city of Rensselaer. The grain elevator at the port, built during the original construction in 1932, was the largest in the world and as of 2008 is still considered to be the largest in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
The area of Albany's original port has been covered by Interstate 787 and the Corning Preserve since the very early 1970s. In 1979 remnants of the basin wall were excavated from the preserve's lagoon by Phillip Lord working for the New York State Museum.
A Master Plan adopted in 2000 called for the port to be transformed into a container port, which led to the purchase of the largest harbor crane in the state. In 2002, the Port District Commission took the lead in the development of Albany's Riverfront Park in the Corning Preserve as part of a development to enhance Albany's access to the river. The port helped in financing the project and in the construction of two bulkheads which have seasonal floating docks attached. In a 2005 audit, the Office of the State Comptroller questioned the port's involvement in the construction and financing. Two issues raised were the port district's lack of authority to build docks for non-commercial use and that the port would receive no income for facilities it was financing. The port received $3.3 million in 2002 to upgrade and become a member of the Inland Distribution Network, a select group of ports that are used as satellite locations for the distribution of container cargo from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, resulting in less congestion at downstate ports and highways.
On December 9, 2003, the Dutch-owned ship Stellamare capsized at the port, killing three Russian crewmembers. The ship was hauling General Electric generators when it overturned. The United States Coast Guard determined that poor communication resulting from the supervisors speaking Dutch while the crew spoke Russian, with English being used as a relay, was a contributing factor to mismanagement of ballast tanks. In the early spring of 2008 a port employee was arrested for stealing copper. This in turn led to investigations of employee theft which resulted in the arrest of an operations manager and a maintenance foreman for larceny. In 2008 the port received two awards from the Railway Industrial Clearance Association. One award was for customer satisfaction and the other for being the most improved port in the United States for handling heavy lift cargo.
Future
The Port of Albany is replacing of wharves at a cost of $7.6 million in 2008 and 2009.In late March 2008 a proposal for a $350 million ethanol plant was approved by the Albany Port District Commission, but the project has been held up due to financing issues.
As of 2021, the site was scheduled as a potential assembly area for offshore wind turbine towers.