The Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail is a 9-mile pathway following the old Albany and Susquehanna Railroad between Albany and Voorheesville, linking the Normanskill Gorge in Albany, the old hamlets of Delmar and Elsmere, the historic Village of Voorheesville, and the fields and woodlands of New Scotland at the base of the Helderberg Escarpment. In the mid-19th century, private investors pursued a railroad connecting Albany and the upper Susquehanna Valley to transport coal and link fertile farms with Albany markets, and the privately owned Albany and Susquehanna Railroad opened its first section between Albany and Central Bridge in September 1863. Soon after the line was completed, a struggle by aggressive capitalists for control of the board of directors led to a lengthy proxy war and an armed confrontation, and on February 24, 1870, the weary board leased the line in perpetuity to the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. The railroad transformed freight and passenger movement in Bethlehem and New Scotland, expanded farmers' access to markets, and encouraged commuting between Delmar, Slingerlands, and Voorheesville and offices in Albany, helping begin suburbanization. Passenger service on this section ended in the 1930s and freight service in the 1990s, and in 2010 Albany County purchased 9.1 miles of rail bed from the Canadian Pacific Railway, with support from state and regional partners, and improved the route from Albany to Voorheesville for recreation and alternative transportation.
