Some people will have you believe The Egg was built in Albany as a part of the larger Empire State Plaza project in the heart of New York. They’ll have you believe The Egg goes down six stories into the ground. That it keeps its shape thanks to a reinforced concrete beam that helps transmit the weight into the supporting pedestal structure. They’ll tell you the architectural engineering of The Egg is without peer and this part is at least true. However some people also try to convince you the earth is flat. While we hope both of these completely independent and unrelated facts are true there may be other answers to examine.
The Hudson River is 315 miles long. From the mouth of the river near Manhattan to Albany is right around 150 miles. So you’re telling me Dutch Settlers looking to establish a trading post just randomly stopped traveling North up the river and built Fort Orange and a new life at what would one day become Albany for no particular reason? Here’s a different angle.
On a boat, going up the Hudson a group of Dutch Settlers were looking for the perfect spot to set up a trading post to ramp up the beaver pelt industry. Enjoying the wonderful landscape of the surrounding Catskills they were content to take their time and enjoy the scouting mission. Then one particular morning just South of Peebles Island where the Mohawk River meets the Hudson a few rays of sunshine pierced the morning mist. During his early morning practice of juggling tulip bulbs one of the younger sailors was absorbing the scenery of the Western bank when up on a hill he noticed a peculiar site. Nestled within the trees of the Albany Pine Bush- one of the largest inland pine barrens in the world- was a large oval stone.
A few of the more adventurous sailors jumped off the boat and hiked through the maze of trees to find a clearing and in the middle of the clearing was the largest egg they had ever seen. In a scene right out of a fairy tale circling the egg almost in worship were hundreds of Karner Blue Butterflies.
The entire group of travelers pitched tents in the clearing and spent their first night in awe under the nurturing shadow of The Egg. The next morning they began disassembling their boat and using the timber to build the first permanent structure in the area. None of the early settlers ever set foot on a boat again knowing they found the place they were meant to be.
Over the next couple of centuries the City of Albany was built around the mysterious Egg with Empire plaza built as the equivalent to the plaza surrounding the Kaaba in Mecca or St Peter’s Square in Vatican City. No one truly knows what’s inside but many believe The Egg was frozen during the Ice Age and within a monster still slumbers.
Some say The Egg contains a prehistoric creature and we hold performances there to sate it and keep it from hatching and unleashing terror and destruction throughout the New York Capital Region. Japan had this same exact issue with Godzilla in Tokyo but was not successful at keeping the monster dormant.
The Egg has brought extreme prosperity to New York’s Capital. Based on the 2018 GMP report if you ignore the top 56 cities, Albany, NY is ranked the highest in Gross Metropolitan Product in our country. Every year in April around the world religious people celebrate Easter. A holiday that carries a tradition of hunting for eggs. A modern day reenactment of that original Dutch voyage that found The Egg of Albany.
Atlantis. El Dorado. Shambhala. Some believe these ancient, mythical cities all had Eggs of their own but its people were not capable of sating their monster’s love of performing arts. In this way, we of the Capital Region outshine all of them reveling to this day in the symbiotic relationship between Albany and The Egg.