1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Watervliet

WATERVLIET, a city of Albany county, New York, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Hudson river opposite Troy and about 5 m. N . of Albany. Pop. (1890) 12,967; (1900) 14,321, of whom 2754 were foreign-born and 59 were negroes; (1910 census) 15,074. Watervliet is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway and by steamboat lines on the Hudson river, and is connected with Troy by bridges and ferries, and with Albany, Troy, Cohoes and Schenectady by electric lines. The Erie and Champlain canals have their terminals a short distance above the city. The city has a city hall and a public library. Watervliet is situated in a good farming country, but is chiefly a manufacturing place; in 1905 its factory products were valued at $1,884,802 (25% more than in 1900), not including the product of the United States Arsenal (1807), on the river, an important manufactory of heavy ordnance. The place was originally called West Troy and was incorporated as a village in 1836; in 1897 it was chartered as a city under its present name; at the same time the township of Watervliet in which it was situated was divided into the townships of Colonie and Green Island. In 1776 the first settlement of Shakers (q.v.) in America was made in the township by “Mother Ann” Lee and her followers, who named it Niskayuna. Here “Mother Ann” died and is buried.