Schenectady, city, seat of Schenectady County, eastern New York, on the Mohawk River and the Barge Canal, near Albany; incorporated as a city 1798. It has been a leading center for the research and manufacture of electrical equipment since the American inventor Thomas A. Edison founded a forerunner of the General Electric Company here in 1886. Chemicals also are produced. The city is the seat of Union College and the Schenectady Museum. Schenectady's Stockade area, a historical district, contains some 65 structures, many dating from the early 18th century.
The city was settled by the Dutch in the early 1660s; its name is derived from a Mohawk word meaning “across the pine plains.” In 1690 the community was destroyed by a force of Frenchmen and Iroquois. Rebuilt by 1710, it grew as a gateway to the Mohawk Valley. Industrialization of the city was spurred by the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the inauguration of railroad service in 1832. Schenectady was a major center of locomotive manufacture from about 1850 to the mid-20th century. Population 67,972 (1980); 65,566 (1990); 61,698 (1998 estimate).
