Note: This is a "blast from the past" post as we work our way backwards to catch you up on our previous destinations. We recently hit the road again and are working our way toward Denver by way of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Mexico. We will not be doing any "real time" posts until early March when we visit Kansas. Kansas will be the first of 19 new states that we will visit this year in the final leg of our adventure.
Visited August 3-14, 2020
By Janell
We originally had about five or six nights planned for the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. Due to Covid however, we were unable to cross over into Canada for a visit to the Toronto area. Instead we tacked those days onto our Niagara Falls stay, making it twelve nights. This made time for a few trips to see the falls and time to get to know the city of Buffalo better than we had expected.
We all know about Niagara Falls, right? If you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all, right? Wrong!! Niagara Falls is so massive that it's hard to take it all in. It doesn't even fit in one photo.
Niagara Falls is composed of three sections: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls.
On the left foreground in the above photo, you see Bridal Veil Falls. Across Lake Ontario you see the city of Niagara Falls, Canada. Tucked in the middle between Bridal Veil Falls and Niagara Falls' skyline is just barely a glimpse of the mist from Horseshoe Falls. Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three, and you'll see a better shot of it soon.
This is one of the Canadian tour boats headed for Horsehoe Falls. (They have red ponchos and a Canadian flag on the back.) I love that a rainbow graced us with its presence!
Here you can see much of Horsehoe Falls in the distance. This is a USA boat tour known as the "Maid of the Mist", and it's headed to the heart of Horseshoe Falls.
Horseshoe Falls
The shots above and below were taken from our Maid of the Mist boat tour.
They give you plastic ponchos, but even so . . . you get wet!
Below you can see our "before" and "after" Maid of the Mist photos.
"Before"
"After!"
Now for some fun facts about Niagara Falls:
- 3,160 tons of water flows over Niagara Falls every second.
- Niagara Falls' vertical height is over 176' in some sections.
- Four of the five Great Lakes drain into the Niagara River (Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie) before emptying into Lake Ontario.
- Niagara Falls State Park is the oldest state park in America. It was established in 1885 as the Niagara Reservation.
- Niagara Falls State Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. (I'm sure many of you recognize his name as he also designed Central Park, Stanford University, and the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, to name a few.)
The fun at Niagara Falls doesn't end when the sun goes down. The falls are illuminated every night of the year from dusk into the wee hours of the morning. The colors change after several minutes.
In a moment of weakness we bought the cheesy, over-priced photos that we usually try to avoid.
Now, about Buffalo. Can't say I'd ever given it much thought before. If asked, I could've told you that winters there are bitter cold (not from personal experience, of course), but I doubt I knew another fact about the city of Buffalo. We took a historical bike tour of the city and learned a lot while also having a good time.
This is Buffalo's City Hall!
In 1801, the city of Buffalo was just a small village. By 1901, it was the host of the infamous Pan-American Exposition, (where President William McKinley was shot - more on that later). Shipping, railroads, and the discovery of electricity pumped prosperity into the area.
In 1875 the city built a monumental granite structure as their City Hall. It had three floors and a seven-story clock tower. (If you're paying attention, you can tell that we're not talking about the above building.)
By 1920 however, the Buffalo Common Good decided that in light of the city's growing population (it had quadrupled in the 45 years since the City Hall of 1875 was built), a larger and much grander structure was in order. By 1931, when the current City Hall was completed, Buffalo was a center for industry and tourism (thank you, Niagara Falls!), and the city was ready for its promising future.
At 32 stories and 398' tall, Buffalo's City Hall is one of the largest and tallest municipal buildings in the United States.
Buffalo's City Hall was "green" way before "green" was a thing. It was built with a non-powered air-conditioning system, taking advantage of strong prevailing winds from Lake Erie. Large vents were placed on the west side of the building to catch wind, which would then travel down ducts to beneath the basement, to be cooled by the ground. This cooled air was then vented throughout the building. Winds off the lake were usually strong enough to power air through this system.
If you're interested, you can check out the link below for old photos taken during the construction of City Hall. It was quite the project!
The city of Buffalo didn't quite grow into its grandiose City Hall however. The effects of suburbanization, deindustrialization and globalization, combined with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959, lead to a decline in Buffalo's main industries and ultimately to a decline in its population. From 1950 to 2020 Buffalo lost over half of its population.
St. Paul's Cathedral, an Episcopal church, was built in 1851 and is a Buffalo landmark. In 1987 it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture.
Our tour guide, and the founder of Buffalo Bike Tours, Marc Moscato, shared with us the details of the assassination of President William McKinley, which happened on this very spot in 1901. At that time this was the location of the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition. Currently, this memorial marker is in the middle of a nice neighborhood; specifically in the middle of the median (is that redundant?) on a street in a nice neighborhood.
As always, we're on the lookout for cool murals, and Buffalo had a few.
When we were here there was a bridal party taking photos in front of this mural.
I bet they made for some cool pics, but we didn't want those people in our photo.
To counter balance the beauty of the flower baskets, just take a look at the art at the corner of the rooftop! For a better view, or at least different view, see the photo below.
Well, it is a brewery!
One more thing we learned on our bike tour: Buffalo wings started in Buffalo, or so the city claims. I suppose that makes sense. Since the tour guide gave us a couple of restaurants known specifically for their Buffalo wings, we thought we'd have dinner at one of them and check out the wings. They were darn good! But messy!
Too late! Now you know.
As I reported above, President McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY on September 6, 1901. By September 10, doctors in Buffalo thought he was recovering. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was encouraged to reassure the country by continuing with a planned family outing in the Adirondack Mountains. Before leaving Buffalo, he gave a copy of his itinerary to his friend Ansley Wilcox, at whose house he'd been staying. Three days later, upon returning from climbing the highest peak in the Adirondacks, he met a messenger bearing a telegram summoning him to return to Buffalo. A hired wagon carried him 35 miles through the night over rough roads to reach the nearest train station, and at dawn on September 14, he boarded a special train that took him to Buffalo. By the time of his arrival in Buffalo, President McKinley had already been dead twelve hours. Everyone was anxious to swear in a new president asap, so Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office of President of the United States in the Ansley Wilcox House right there in Buffalo, NY.
The Ansley Wilcox House is now a museum, known as the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site. Due to Covid, visiting the site required an appointment, and we were the only two patrons in the entire place!
There are the usual historic rooms and artifacts one would expect to find in such a place, including the library where Roosevelt took the oath. One room however, is a recreation of Roosevelt's White House office. You can sit at his presidential desk and review some of the same pieces of legislation as Roosevelt. Using the computer, (which obviously was not on Teddy's White House desk!) you can make presidential decisions. You can strike a presidential pose, and press a button that operates a camera across the room. Then using the computer you can email yourself something like this:
By the way, Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to have round the clock protection by the Secret Service.
One day we visited the Erie Canal in Lockport, NY, which is about a half hour's drive from Buffalo.
In the first half of the day we pedaled our bikes several miles on the Erie Canalway Bike Path, which as you might expect, runs right alongside the canal. It was very quiet; we only encountered a handful of people all morning. It was a very pleasant ride; although, I will say that it was hot and humid!
In the afternoon we took a boat tour through the Erie Canal locks. The tour company's website advertises that you can experience "Life in the Past Lane". It was a fun and educational tour through five of the original 1800's locks.
Heads up! There's oncoming traffic.
I didn't know that private boats (or kayaks or canoes!) are allowed to go through the locks. We didn't see any kayaks or canoes -- just this one boat.
Apparently, as a private boater wanting to traverse the locks, all you have to do is alert the lock operator by one of these methods: call ahead, use a marine radio, or signal with three horn or whistle blasts! Toot! Toot! Toot!
Then, once at the locks: wait for the green light; follow the directions of the lock operator; position yourself along the lock wall as directed (just like that oncoming boat above); and stay clear of the lock gates as they open.
I wonder if we'd had this info ahead of time if Marty would've wanted to kayak or canoe through the locks?!
Some folks are fascinated by the locks. These two . . . not so much! 🤣
Three million gallons of water will fill Locks 34 & 35, the only double set on the Erie Canal, and raise the boat 50 feet!
Originally the Erie Canal was 363 miles long, stretching from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie. It was completed in 1825, and it was the second longest canal in the world (after the Grand Canal in China). There were 83 locks at that time.
In 1825 it would've taken you five days to travel from Albany to Buffalo via the canal. Seems like a long time, but contrast that to the same distance by stagecoach: two weeks!
If you'd like to see the locks in action and hear a bit of information about them, check out these two videos below:
We visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House which is located in Buffalo.
It was a very cool house, and I wouldn't mind living there! There were a handful of these abstract lawn "decorations", but they were not here when the house was built in 1903-05.
We also took a Buffalo River History Tour. For 90 minutes we cruised the Buffalo River and out onto Lake Erie. The tour was narrated by a 4th grade school teacher, and she was fabulous! It was educational and entertaining. The kids in her classes are very lucky!
It was an afternoon cruise, and a server came around to ask if we wanted to order drinks, and so we did. She brought the drinks, and then another staff member came by soon afterward with a basket of cereal bars and such. I politely declined. But no, we were told we had to take one (and pay for it). What?!! Apparently, under the local Covid restrictions the boat tours could only offer drinks if they also served food! So, law-abiding citizens that we are, we each took a cereal bar.
This is not our tour boat.
Buffalo was the world's largest grain port from the 1850's until the first half of the 20th century, and it once had the United States' largest capacity for the storage of grain in over 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors. This is one of them, obviously no longer in use.
Looking back at Buffalo from Lake Erie on a crystal clear day
This is Bird Island Pier: a 2-mile path to nowhere. Literally. You get to the end and then just come back. It's flanked by Black Rock Canal on the left and the Niagara River on the right.
Back at camp, and look what's for dinner!
Niagara falls is spectacular!
ReplyDeleteBuffalo sounds interesting & now we have a compelling reason to visit.
Rick is obsessed with Buffalo wings. I confirmed via google /The National Chicken Counsel that Buffalo is indeed the owner of Anchor Bar in Buffalo was the first to serve Buffalo wings.
So, I think a visit to the birthplace of that delicacy is now in order.