All that many people can think of when they hear of New York is the tall buildings of Manhattan. But New York is not just a city, it is also the name of a U.S. state. It consists not only of New York City, but also of other cities as well as vast areas of woodland and farmland and mountains.
Let's have a look today at the four major cities of upstate New York, the New York City area is referred to as downstate. But remember that New York State is far more than cities, it is also the Adirondack Mountains, as well as the Catskills and the Finger Lakes.The capital city of New York State is Albany. We have seen Albany on the travel photo blog of North America: The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
http://markmeektravel.blogspot.com/2006/09/albany-capital-city-of-new-york-state.html
A name that is often seen around upstate New York is that of Corning. It was a railroad and political family, including mayors of Albany. This photo is of the Corning Tower, the tallest building in the Empire State Plaza, with the structure to the left known as "The Egg":
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250960.jpg
The nickname of New York State is "The Empire State", and there is a concourse with stores and restaurants below ground level in the Empire State Plaza.
The unique structure known as The Egg is a theater. This shows how original New York State is. Nowhere else in the world is there a concrete egg, with a theater inside:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egg_(building)#/media/File:The_Egg.JPG
#/media/File:The_Egg.JPG){kind=link}
This is the State Legislature Building in Albany, also known as the State Capitol. which I incorrectly referred to as the Governor's Mansion on the travel photo blog:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250957.jpg
The following images are around the Empire State Plaza in Albany. The first scene is looking ahead to the State Legislature Building. Notice how the Empire State Plaza, with it's reflecting pool. resembles The Mall, in Washington DC. I had thought that the long reflecting pool represented the Erie Canal, which was so important to the development of New York State, and that the buildings along the sides represented the cities along the canal.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow,^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes if you wish.
One set of names that are seen all over upstate New York is that of the five native Indian nations which joined together to form what is known as the Iroquois Confederacy. I always remembered the names of these five nations by the acronym "SCOOM". From west to east, these five nations are the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and, Mohawk. The Tuscarora, in far western New York State, were later added to the Iroquois as the sixth tribe. These are the names, for example, of the Finger Lakes, and of countless streets and companies.
Another name that is often seen in upstate New York is that of Clinton. This is for Dewitt Clinton, who was the force behind getting the Erie Canal built. This long canal extended from Albany, on the Hudson River, in the east, to Buffalo, in the west. The Erie Canal was built in the 1840s, before the invention of high explosives. The New York State Thruway is the modern incarnation of the Erie Canal.
The city that is most associated with the Erie Canal is Lockport, where the canal climbed the Niagara Escarpment by means of locks, thus giving the city it's name. It is not near Albany, but is in the far northwestern part of the state. Lockport has a high number of mansions per person, built by the wealth that must have flowed through the canal before railroads brought it's heyday to a close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal#/media/File:ErieCanalAtNiagaraEscarp.jpg
Moving westward, the next major city that we come to is Syracuse. This is an aerial photo of downtown Syracuse. The building in the background, on the shore of Lake Onondaga is Destiny USA, formerly known as the Carousel Center. it is one of those vast malls that you can spend all day in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_New_York#/media/File:Syracuse_NY.jpg
Syracuse is especially known for Syracuse University:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_University#/media/File:Crousecollegesu.jpg
Around Syracuse, there are many shirts and banners with the color orange on them. That is the name of the sports teams at Syracuse University, the Syracuse Orange. I wonder if the name comes from the Dutch House of Orange. Albany started as a Dutch settlement, known as Fort Orange.
This is Syracuse City Hall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_New_York#/media/File:Syrcityhall2.jpg
The following scenes are of downtown Syracuse, beginning at City Hall:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0500633,-76.1493207,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUL73yq2zspM0dnLidh9EhQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DUL73yq2zspM0dnLidh9EhQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D64.10495%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
The next major city, moving westward from Syracuse, is Rochester. What Rochester is best-known for is Kodak. It did not invent photography, but it's cameras brought it to the masses. As far as I know, the only consumer product that has ever been on the moon is a Kodak camera that was carried by one of the astronauts.
Also originating in Rochester was Xerox, the manufacturer of photocopiers. I have wondered about the relationship between the names of Kodak and Xerox, if the name of Kodak inspired that of Xerox. Both begin and end with the same consonant, with another consonant between two vowels in between. Both names were thought up, and were not the names of anyone.
The first of the following scenes around downtown Rochester is looking at the Broad Street Bridge. The Broad Street Bridge began as an aqueduct for the Erie canal to cross the Genesee River. As downtown Rochester grew, the canal was diverted away by a new route, and rail tracks were constructed on the former bed of the canal. Later, another level was added to the bridge, over which Broad Street now runs. The scenes with all of the graffiti on the walls are in the bridge below Broad Street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.15348,-77.6088591,3a,75y,339.27h,88.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sh-j5aEmB6yPBEVXw2QfylQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dh-j5aEmB6yPBEVXw2QfylQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D331.05289%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Finally we come to Buffalo, on the shore of Lake Erie. Buffalo is the largest city in New York State, with the exception of New York City. A name that is often seen around western New York State is that of Ellicott. This was the name of the surveyor who set out the original design of Buffalo, as well as much else in the area, but who unfortunately suffered from mental illness.
Buffalo City Hall is one of the best examples of the architectural style, known as Art Deco. We have seen Buffalo City Hall, on the travel photo blog of North America:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/1.jpg
Not far from Buffalo City Hall is a building, known as the Guaranty Building, that was very important in the early development of skyscrapers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudential_(Guaranty)_Building#/media/File:Prudential_Building_2013-09-08_12-21-41.jpg
_Building#/media/File:Prudential_Building_2013-09-08_12-21-41.jpg){kind=link}
The first of the following scenes of downtown Buffalo is from almost the same perspective as the above photo of City Hall, but with the obelisk known as the McKinley Monument visible. The McKinley Monument is in what is known as Niagara Square. The monument is in honor of U.S. President William McKinley, who was assassinated by an anarchist at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. The new president was sworn in in Buffalo. He was Theodore Roosevelt, whose distant relative Franklin D. Roosevelt would also later be a president from New York State.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8867236,-78.8772296,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4NjJPtFQFJ9F8Jp3-9Zldg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D4NjJPtFQFJ9F8Jp3-9Zldg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D234.67265%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Here are some scenes around North Buffalo, starting in the library building at Buffalo State College. The building listed as the "Buffalo History Museum" is actually a structure left over from the Pan American Exposition, of 1901:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9337127,-78.8807937,3a,75y,67.72h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sEFF2S4DTUjoAAAQo8THd8A!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DEFF2S4DTUjoAAAQo8THd8A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D65.250252%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
There is a lot more about the city of Buffalo in the posting, "All About Buffalo NY" May 2022.
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