The first U.S. steam engine ran from Albany, NY to where?

The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad was the first railroad built in the State of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States. It was so-named because it linked the Mohawk River at Schenectady with the Hudson River at Albany. It was conceived as a means of allowing Erie Canal passengers to quickly bypass the circuitous Cohoes Falls via steam powered trains.

The railroad was incorporated on April 17, 1826 as the Mohawk & Hudson Company and opened for public service on August 9, 1831. On April 19, 1847, the company name was changed to the Albany & Schenectady Railroad. The railroad was consolidated into the New York Central Railroad on May 17, 1853.

Construction began in August 1830 and the railroad opened September 24, 1831, on a 16-mile route between Albany and Schenectady through the Pine Bush region that separates both cities.