Amtrak Railroad Station in Rensselaer

Albany-Rensselaer Station, or (ALB), is an impressive modern version of the classical cathedral rail road station design, that also sports an impressive tower and clock on top. It takes the place of the old New York Central & Hudson River RR station. Due to long term rivalry betweeb the NYC && HR RR and City of Albany, the main station was set in Rensselaer, directly across the river from downtown Albany.

The Capital District has an extensive rail road past. The first chartered public railway in America, the Albany and Schenectady RR was started in 1826.. It was designed to cut off the long and upstream Erie Canal trip via the Cohoes Falls between the two cities and then became the kernel of the once great and famous New York Central Rail Road. The same fortunes of geography that made the Erie Canal possible, the pass to the midwest that avoided  the Appalachian Mountains, allowed the New York Central Rail Road to grow into one of the world's largest and busiest railroads, as it connected the Ports and factories in the New York City area to Chicago via the flatter Hudson and Mohawk Rivers routes.