Canada’s Civic Holiday made our drive to
Buffalo a bit longer than we had hoped, as the Toronto highways were crammed
with lake-goers returning from the long weekend. We were looking at around an
eight-hour drive, which stretched to over ten. We knew what we were up against
and took a more local route around Canada’s largest metropolitan area, as we
would much rather deal with 45 mph speed limits and the occasional traffic
light than stutter along for hours, bumper-to-bumper on a highway!
The Airbnb apartment we booked was wonderful
and in a nice location, just outside the trendy Elmwood Village section of
Buffalo. The streets were lined with colorful Victorian homes that looked
somewhat similar, but when you took a closer look, varied much with details,
building materials and arrangement of the façade.
There were a few streets, designated as
parkways, with wide, grassy and/or tree-lined center medians and large traffic
circles with gardens or monuments in the center. The bonus was that these streets
also had painted bike lanes.
In fact, the whole city was very bicycle
friendly, with not an abundance of on-road bike lanes, “sharrows” (I
hope you are familiar with them by now) and bike racks at all the
necessary places. The area also had a great network of trails in place, with
many miles of new trails and connectors in development.
Buffalo has been a city that boomed because
of its geographic location but has also suffered from it. With Niagara Falls
creating a natural obstacle for ships wishing to access eastern or
international ports, Buffalo became a perfect spot for transloading from large
lake ships to barges for the Erie and (then much smaller) Welland Canals, and also
to railroads.
Once known as the “Breadbasket of the World”,
Buffalo had a lakeshore and river lined with concrete silos for the storage of
grains (a few others stored cement, just to be accurate). Paddling a kayak through the area would feel similar to driving down a city alley
lined with skyscrapers.
Niagara Falls was the location of the world’s
first hydroelectric power plant, built by Tesla and Westinghouse in 1895. The
plentiful energy supplied by the river not only powered the Buffalo flour
mills, it was a huge draw for companies like Union Carbide and Alcoa, which
needed large amounts of power for their manufacturing processes.
The city was at a prime location for
Lackawanna (later Bethlehem) and Republic Steel, as it was convenient to the
iron ore reserves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, as well as the bituminous coal
fields in Pennsylvania. Something that should not be overlooked was Buffalo’s
role as a railroad hub, not only for freight, but for passengers, as it was not
only a destination for Niagara visitors, but also an important station for connecting
trains bound for the Midwest and an entry point for international routes.
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| The Delaware Lackawanna & Western Station, as it appeared in its heyday |
It was incredible to read that, at the time
of the 1950 United States Census, Buffalo was the 15th largest city in the
country (at 580,000), the nation's largest inland port (twelfth overall),
second biggest rail center, sixth largest steel producer, and eighth largest
manufacturer. The city has lost 57% of its population since that time!
The collapse of heavy industry in the U.S. was
a major reason for Buffalo’s steep decline, but a larger factor was the
completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway with the building of the deep-water
Welland Canal in 1959, which allowed large ocean-going ships to bypass Buffalo
completely. Automobile and airline use had put an end to long distance
passenger trains by the 1960s, and the eastern freight railroad scene imploded shortly
after with the development of interstate highways and increases in truck shipments.
Improvements to electricity transmission made
proximity to Niagara irrelevant for companies. Buffalo winters also cannot be
overlooked as a factor in its decline, as it is the country’s snowiest city with
a population of more than 250,000. January temperatures have been one of the best
predictors of urban success, with cold climates losing significantly. Buffalo
isn’t just cold - blizzards will regularly shut down the city completely!
We had last been to the area over fifteen
years ago, and it was obvious the city had long been in decline. There wasn’t a
whole lot to talk about or do in Buffalo, other than attend a sporting event,
as it seemed only a brief stopover for most folks on the way into Canada or up
to Niagara Falls.
However, since 2009 there has been a concerted
effort to develop the harbor with entertainment and arts centers. Some
of the dormant mills have been repurposed and the huge deep-water port areas that
are protected from Lake Erie by the South Harbor Breakwater system have become
a perfect location for the use of kayaks and small sailboats.
The northern portion of Outer Harbor, once a
grain transload site, has become Times Beach Nature Preserve, and the Tifft
Nature Preserve sits on land that was once occupied by the Lehigh Valley Railroad’s
coal and iron ore docks, and later a municipal waste dump. This incredibly-transformed
land is all connected by the Shoreline Trail, which we checked out on Tuesday morning.
We started north from our apartment and turned
west to reach Unity Island which has a 1.65-mile pier extending out its south
end to protect the Black Rock Canal running alongside the fiercely-flowing
Niagara River. Unfortunately, ice jams on the river damaged portions of the
hand rails last winter, and much of the walkway was closed to pedestrians.
We headed back over the island bridge and rode south
on Niagara Street a short distance. The road-separated section of the Shoreline
Trail started just as we passed under the Peace Bridge to Canada. We pedaled
past the Buffalo Yacht Club and LaSalle Park before the trail weaved through a
series of lakeside condo complexes and a few high rise apartments.
After a short zigzag on Erie Street and
Marine Drive, we arrived at the Naval and Military Park, which includes fighter
planes, tanks and a helicopter among its collection. Most impressive to us were
the destroyer, cruiser and submarine at the park’s docks.
Just across a pedestrian bridge is the location
of the 1825 terminus of the Erie Canal, where many interpretive signs and
displays give tourists a feel for the importance of this engineering marvel and
its role in the growth of the city and the economy of the Great Lakes region.
Canalside has become the setting for festivals and outdoor concerts, and the wharf
area features a children’s museum and reflecting pools that become skating
rinks in the winter.
We continued around Key Bank Center, home of
the NHL’s Sabres and passed the train sheds from the former Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western station, torn down in 1979. The structure’s freight
house on the lower floor has long been serving as a terminal for Niagara
Frontier Transportation Authority light-rail trains (Metro Rail), but preliminary
plans are in place to turn the second floor of the building into a space for
shops and restaurants.
At River Fest Park, another attractive
outdoor entertainment complex, I stopped to photograph a couple of the immense
grain silos, in a semi-panoramic view.
One of the nearby lift bridges was just
letting a large pleasure craft through, and we waited for it to lower before we
crossed the Buffalo River and followed Ohio Street and Route 5 past the Tifft
Nature Preserve. We took a little detour from the Shoreline Trail here and
pedaled east on Tifft Street into the South Park section of the city.
After doing a loop around the Buffalo and
Erie County Botanical Gardens, we made our way west on Ridge Road through the
city of Lackawanna. Years ago we had stood with our sons here on an old truss
bridge that crossed the multiple tracks below and watched trains moving below.
We barely recognized the area today, as a modern steel and concrete span had
since been constructed over the railroads.
Shortly after ducking under Route 5, we were
back on a very new section of the Shoreline Trail along Fuhrmann Boulevard.
This was once the site of Lackawanna Steel, but most of the buildings have been
razed. We crossed the Union Canal and were surprised to see some folks scuba
diving in the deep channel.
We were entering the redeveloped Outer Harbor
area described earlier, and after cycling about three miles, past beautiful parks
and marinas on Erie’s lakefront, we reached the Queen City Bike Ferry, which
conveniently links back to Canalside.
The $1 fee for the 5-minute shortcut across
the harbor was well worth it, and Sue and I took to the downtown streets (more
on that area next time) for a short distance before making our way back to the apartment.
I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my
Buffalo history lesson, but I found the story of the city’s prosperity, demise
and revitalization so interesting and encouraging. Our exploration of the area
isn’t complete – one more trip blog entry before heading home to PA!
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