Troy is located in Rensselaer County 6 miles NE of Albany on the banks of the Hudson River in the Central Region of the state. Troy is one of the member communities of the Hudson-Mohawk Urban Cultural Park and the home of Uncle Sam's meat.
Troy is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York metro area.
Construction of the canal underscored a need for trained engineers; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the country's first engineering school, was founded here in 1824.