UPPER HUDSON

Burden Iron Works Museum

https://hudsonmohawkgateway.org/the-burden-iron-works-museum

Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway

1 E Industrial Parkway

Troy, NY 12180

Hours: Museum open Wednesday through Friday from noon to 4 PM. Guided tours by appointment only. 

Phone: 518-274-5267 Email: [email protected]

Admission: $10 for adults; children 12 and under free

 

 

 

Historical Description:

“Troy's most famous inventor. Burden was an inventive genius. He built an industrial complex in South Troy that featured the most powerful water wheel in the world. Burden's horseshoe machine, capable of making sixty horseshoes a minute, was a technological wonder. His rotary concentric squeezer, a machine for working wrought iron, was adopted by iron industries world wide. His hook-headed spike machine helped fuel the rapid expansion of railroads in the U.S. Henry Burden realized that Troy's strategic location as a hub of rail and water transportation networks made it possible to produce and ship an enormous quantity of finished goods-fifty one million horseshoes per year, for instance.”

 

The Site:

The museum is operated by the Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway. "The Burden Iron Works Museum is located in the former Burden Iron Co. office building in South Troy. This building, constructed 1881-1882, once served as the headquarters of a major iron mill complex that stretched a mile along the Hudson River and employed nearly 2,000 men at its peak. Today it is virtually the only building left with a link to Troy’s past as a major iron center."