The Capitol was commenced in 1881 and completed at a cost to the State of twenty-one million dollars, and is of such noble proportions that its mere bulk alone is impressive. The main structure is three hundred by four hundred feet on the floor plan, with walls that rise one hundred and eight feet from water-table to cornice. It contains chambers ample for all the departments and business of the government, besides housing the magnificent State Library, with its one hundred and fifty thousand volumes and its collection of priceless manuscripts and documents relative to the history of the State. In these few notes u])on the history and the legends of a fascinating old city we have hardly opened the subject. The records are so full and rich, the traditions so abundant and so varied, that it is with deep regret and the sense of a pleasant task left uncompleted that the chronicler closes this chapter. Albany has, within comparatively a short time, taken a new start, and in public improvements and new

An Old Dutch Town 549

buildings, as well as in a marked increase in busines s, gives evidence of having commenced with the new century a new epoch in its life. Among the causes suggested for the rapid increase in ])opulation is an improved water supply. New life has been infused into a formerly inacti\'e chamber of commerce, and whereas a few years ago business enter])rise was in many quarters somewhat conspicuous by its al^senc e, now there is e\'idence of more stirring activity. The first change in Albany's life occurred when the New England element came in and began to mingle with the Dutch and " the dogs began to bark in broken English." The second period ended with the appearance of the river steamboat; the third seems to have given place to a fourth, the cause or causes yet unknown.