Fort Orange was the first permanent Dutch settlement in North America, built by the Dutch West India Company at a strategic crossroads near the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers and at the head of the trail into Mohawk territory. Its location made it the most important center of diplomacy and trade between Dutch colonists and Native peoples in northeastern America. In the mid and late 1600s, the settlement that became Albany grew outside the fort walls, spreading mostly north and west along what are today's Broadway and State Street. The fort was abandoned in 1676, by which time Albany was firmly established as a busy and influential hub of social, political, and economic life in the colonies. An earlier fort, Nassau, had been built in 1614 slightly south of Fort Orange but was washed away within a few years by floods. Though short-lived, Fort Nassau played an important historical role by signaling the Dutch claim to the region six years before the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony and establishing a presence that grew into Albany and New York State.