Welcome to Buffalo!
Buffalo is an American city in western New York. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 292,648. It is
the state's second-largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County. It is also the economic and cultural center of the
Buffalo-Niagara Region, a diverse metropolitan area with a population of 1.2 million people. The Buffalo area is adjacent to the Golden
Horseshoe, an urban region in southern Ontario.
Buffalo lies at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the southern head of the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
The City of Buffalo received its name from the creek that flows through it, and likely dates from the mid 18th century, when the area was first
settled by Europeans. The area was originally settled by an Iroquois tribe, the Ongiara. The then-village was designed in 1804 with a radial
street and grid system, centered on where the McKinley Monument now stands. Buffalo is one of only three major US cities with such a street
layout.
In the War of 1812, on December 30, 1813, the village, which was considered a military resort, was burned by the British. In 1825, the town
became the western end of the Erie Canal and had a population of around 2,400. It was incorporated as a city in 1832.
Buffalo was a terminus of the Underground Railroad and helped many fugitives cross the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario and freedom.
At the start of the 20th century, immigrants from Europe came in to work in the local mills which used hydroelectric power generated from the
river. The city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting used. In 1881, Buffalo had deployed the first
electric street lights in the United States.
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