You can tell a lot about a city by the way others perceive it. If you look at writings about the early days of Troy you can definitely understand why its destiny was set to become an industrial giant. Here are a few samples.

In 1788, Elkanah Watson, an Albany entrepreneur visited and remarked:

"On the east side of the river, at this point, a new town has been recently laid out, named Vanderheyden. This place is situated precisely at the head of navigation on the Hudson. Several bold and enterprising adventurers have already settled here; a number of capacious warehouses and several dwellings are already erected. It is favorable situated in reference to the important and growing trade of Vermont and Massachusetts; and I believe not only bids fair to be a serious thorn in the side of New City (Lansingburgh), but in the issue a fatal rival. I think Vanderheyden must, from its more eligible position, attain ultimate ascendancy."

In 1800, a local Troy newspaper recorded the following:

"It will be sufficient for us to observe that fifteen years ago there were in this village (now comprising somewhat more than a mile square) but two dwelling houses, and probably not more than fifteen inhabitants, and that at the present time it contains about 300 dwelling houses (independent of stores, etc.) and 1,802 inhabitants. A population so rapid has, we believe, but seldom been witnessed in the United States."

When the English traveler John Lambert visited Troy eight years later in 1807, he saw this:

"Troy is a well built town, consisting chiefly of one street of handsome red brick houses, upwards of a mile and a half in length. There are two or three short streets which branch off from the main one; but it is in the latter (River Street) that all the principal stores, warehouses, and shops are situated. It also contains several excellent inns and taverns. The houses are all new and lofty and built with much taste and simplicity.

The deep red brick, well pointed, gives the buildings an air of neatness and cleanliness seldom met with in old towns. The trade which Troy has opened with the new settlements to the northward through the states of New York and Vermont, as far as Canada, is very extensive, and in another twenty years it promises to rival the old established city of Albany. Its prosperity is indeed already looked upon with an eye of jealousy by the people of the later place."

In 1816, the British traveler Francis Hall remarked, "Troy is little short of a mile in length, and bears every mark of growing opulence."

In 1824 Horatio Spafford in his Gazetteer wrote:

Troy's "... trade is very great, compared with its population, and employs near 60 sloops, owned here, beside giving business to vessels from other places. More wheat has annually been shipped from this City, for some years, than from Albany. He further states: "The growth of this city has been very rapid, even compared with others in our own country, and immense capitals have been rapidly accumulating by its business, and the rise of property. Troy is very justly distinguished for commercial enterprise, quick discernment in schemes of profit, and great perseverance in their execution."

In 1825, an anonymous writer in the Albany newspaper The Microscope wrote a three-part essay on spending 10 minutes in Troy. Obviously a bit jealous on what he saw, he wrote the following about this "Rensselearian metropolis" as he described it during trips between various hotels (read that saloons):

"On visiting the city of Troy, we know of no one thing that is more likely to excite attention, than the singularity and eccentricity of Signs appended to the doors of her thriving, thoroughgoing mechanics, artisans and salesmen. Here you discover the sign of a hatter, which covers the whole gable end of a respectable brick store, and consists of naught but the portrait of some hundred different hats, placed in a globular, and, at the same time heterogeneous order."

In 1833-34, even the celebrated actress Fanny Kemble, while waiting for a boat at Steamboat Square, wrote, "The situation of the warehouses, on the side near the river of the main street of Troy is exceedingly pretty."

In 1835, Albanians woke up one morning to find that Trojans outsmarted them by having the first train to reach Saratoga Springs. This coup was recorded by Philip Hone who wrote, "Trojans are the most enterprising, persevering, go-ahead set of fellows in the world."

Got that right!

Realize all this was said BEFORE Troy became the industrial giant known around the world in the later part of the 19th century.