Much like its larger neighboring cities; Troy, Watervliet, and Cohoes; Green Island was a major manufacturing and transportation center. In 1823 the Federal Dam was built between Green Island and Troy allowing for year-round navigation north on the Hudson River to Waterford and Lansingburgh. In 1834 a terminal was built on the island by the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, which the following year built the first Green Island Bridge for railroad use from Green Island to Troy. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad built its locomotive and car shops in 1842 in Green Island. Even after the Delaware and Hudson Railroad (D&H) took over and consolidated operations to the Colonie Shops (just west of Watervliet), the Green Island Shops continued to be a repair shop and were frequently mentioned in trade magazines during the 1930s regarding their experiments with new methods and materials; such as light weight steel. Green Island, population 800, was incorporated in 1853 as a village in the town of Watervliet. In that same year the Gilbert Car Company had a railroad car factory built in Green Island after their Troy location burned, it too would experience a fire in 1862, and finally went out of business in 1895. The town of Green Island was formed in 1896 which also created the city of Watervliet, a year after the division of the original town of Watervliet that created the town of Colonie.