RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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The Commemorative
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The Commemorative Quarter for New York





Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in West Albany, we use the following websites to find information relevant to West Albany and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for West Albany:
    • 42.685098, -73.783067
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • The Heavens-Above Website, centered on West Albany
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Waymark.com

Communities Also Named West Albany ...

We found two communities that share the name West Albany.

Within New York, the name West Albany is unique.

Beyond New York, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Minnesota
      • Wabasha County
      • This West Albany is located in Wabasha County and lies 931 miles [1,498.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the West Albany that is located in Albany County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wabasha County community of West Albany.
    • Oregon
      • Benton County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Oregon community of West Albany [Benton County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near West Albany ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Best
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Crescent Station
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crescent Station have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent Station
    • Crescent Station is located in Albany County
  • Green Island
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Green Island have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Island
    • Green Island is located in Albany County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,879 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Green Island <4>
  • Halfmoon Beach
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Hartmans Corners
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Luther
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Maywood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maywood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maywood
    • Maywood is located in Albany County
  • Mohawk View
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mohawk View have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mohawk View
    • Mohawk View is located in Albany County
  • Mountain View
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mountain View have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
    • Mountain View is located in Rensselaer County
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • New Scotland
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Normansville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Shakers
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shakers have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shakers
      • Shakers is located in Albany County
    • Stony Hill
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stony Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Hill
      • Stony Hill is located in Albany County
    • Unionville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Unionville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Unionville
      • Unionville is located in Albany County
    • Van Allen Park
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Van Allen Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Van Allen Park
      • Van Allen Park is located in Rensselaer County

How Far From West Albany to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as West Albany to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in West Albany and extending to:

  • Albany, which is the Seat of Albany County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies just to the south southeast (SSE).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 311 miles [500.5 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from West Albany to White House, with an average speed<6>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 18 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,605 miles [9,020.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,319 miles [10,169.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<9>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,194 miles [6,749.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<10>

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for West Albany. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Albany County: www.albanycounty.com/

The official website for State of New York: https://www.ny.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- West Albany) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in West Albany. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.6851, Longitude: -73.7831       In this case, the coordinates for West Albany have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that West Albany could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<7>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from West Albany to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 305.579 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.429 degrees.
<10>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.651 degrees.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 22 Apr 2025