Cohoes

Cohoes, city, Albany County, eastern New York, at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, near Albany; incorporated as a city 1869. It is a retailing and manufacturing center; major products include clothing, electrical appliances, and paper goods. The community was settled by the Dutch in 1665. Its name is derived from a Native American term for “canoe falling.” The Van Schaick Mansion (1735) here served as a headquarters of the American general Horatio Gates during the American Revolution and is maintained as a museum. Falls on the Mohawk at Cohoes were used to power textile mills as early as the 1830s. Population 18,144 (1980); 16,825 (1990); 15,521 (2000); 15,085 (2005 estimate).