Mohawk Harbor Bike Trail to Be Named after Alco

SCHENECTADY — The Schenectady County Legislature plans to name a new bike trail at Mohawk Harbor after the American Locomotive Company as the City Council mulls street names on the site.

The Legislature is scheduled to vote on a resolution during a meeting Tuesday evening naming the future bike-hike trail at the old Alco site along the Mohawk River the “Alco Heritage Trail.”

The decision on naming the bike path after Alco, which manufactured locomotives there until 1969, comes as the City Council is faced with a decision on more modern street names within the property.

“Part of the plan for the Mohawk Harbor site has always been recognition for Alco on the site,” said Legislator Gary Hughes. “There has been so much interest in the Alco name since the street naming idea came along that we thought we should remind people that we always intended significant Alco recognition.”

The Galesi Group of Rotterdam is transforming the 60-acre brownfield, renamed Mohawk Harbor, with a casino, housing, hotels, office and retail, and a 50-boat-slip harbor.

The new bike trail will cover the entire waterfront section of the Mohawk Harbor site. The 1.5-mile trail will extend from the Western Gateway Bridge to Freeman’s Bridge.

The county also received funding as part of the state’s Regional Economic Development Council awards to design an extension of the trail to Riverside Park completing the linkage to run the trail from bridge to bridge.

Hughes said the county plans to put historical markers and signage along the bike trail to tell the history of Alco in Schenectady.

“We want to have places to stop and detail how Alco came to be and what was produced there,” he said. “We anticipate a lot of people who aren’t from Schenectady would use that trail. It’s a way to show the large locomotives and tanks that were made here.”