WATERVLIET  , a

city of Albany county, New York, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Hudson river opposite Troy and about 5 M . N. of Albany . Pop . (189o) 12,967; (1900) 14,321, of whom 2754 were foreign-born and 59 were negroes; (1910 census) 15,074 . Watervliet is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway and by steamboat lines on the Hudson river, and is connected with Troy by bridges and ferries, and with Albany, Troy, Cohoes and Schenectady by electric lines . The Erie and Champlain canals have their terminals a short distance above the city . The city has a city hall and a public library . Watervliet is situated in a good farming country, but is chiefly a manufacturing place; in 1905 its factory products were valued at $1,884,802 (25% more than in 1900), not including the product of the United States Arsenal (1807), on the river, an important manufactory of heavy ordnance . The place was originally called West Troy and was incorporated as a village in 1836; in 1897 it was chartered as a city under its present name; at the same time the township of Watervliet in which it was situated was divided into the townships cf Colonie and Green Island . In 1776 the first settlement of Shakers (q.v.) in America was made in the township by " Mother Ann " Lee and her followers, who named it Niskayuna . Here " Mother Ann " died and is buried .