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Decades before the term ‘Buffalo Wings’ evoked the image of a plate of fried chicken parts covered in hot sauce, the wings produced in Buffalo were covered in fabric and aluminum. Buffalo Wings flew in defense of freedom in two world wars. Machines built in Buffalo broke the sound barrier, pioneered vertical flight, lifted astronauts off the surface of the Moon, and trained others to fly the Space Shuttle. For More information about these images, go to post: “Four Aviation Milestones Produced in Buffalo.”
Competition for the Erie Canal Rode on Steel Rails
Although it remained a viable method of transporting goods and people through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, the Erie Canal’s monopoly on transportation across New York state lasted only a few years. Not long after Buffalo was incorporated as a city in 1832, Buffalo’s first rail companies were founded. The Buffalo and Erie ran south from Buffalo into northern Pennsylvania. The Buffalo and Aurora was a short-haul line between Buffalo and the town of East Aurora. The Panic of 1837 (what we called a depression in the 20th century) caused the failure of both companies before either made their first run.
A horse-powered line between Buffalo and northern neighbor Black Rock began operating in 1834. The first steam-powered railroad to operate within Erie County began operations in 1836. Eventually this short line extended to Niagara Falls and Lockport. By 1844 another rail line extended to Attica, NY, connecting Buffalo and western New York with the several independent railroads that crossed New York State all the way to Albany. Locally, horse-drawn streetcars were moving people around the city by 1860.
In this period freight carried by rail had to be transferred several times before completing the trip across New York. This caused the cost of rail carriage to remain high, so the Canal remained economically competitive for many years. Inevitably the railroad’s speed and flexibility allowed the rails to eventually overtake the canal – but it would take time. In fact, for many years before the rails could overtake the Canal, they relied on each other for at least a portion of the freight they carried. The Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railroad (Later the Lake Huron) had a pickup in Black Rock, near the Canal’s Buffalo Terminus.
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The 1854 Tariff of the Buffalo Brantford & Goderich Railway. Note the pickup point in Black Rock. along the Canal.
(From: Library of Congress)
The railroads had many obstacles of their own, however. Like all emerging technologies there were bugs to be worked out, none of which were unique to Buffalo. Considered quaint today, the railroad was a leap in technology. People at the time traveled no faster than by horse so the idea of moving at even thirty miles an hour was huge. There was also an element of danger. The early railroads had a nasty habit of coming off the rails. Rail fatalities peaked in 1907 when 11,839 Americans died, a safety record that would never be acceptable today.
Despite that the railroads grew at a frantic pace through the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. Buffalo became a major rail center. As tonnage carried on the Erie Canal peaked in the 4 million range and remained flat through the 1950s, it was the growth of the railroads that continued Buffalo’s growth. Despite the steady tonnage carried, New York State did very well on its original investment to open the Canal. Tolls collected in 1850 exceeded $3.2 million.
Decades before blogs or Twitter were ever thought of, many weighed in on the new rail technology including philosopher Henry Thoreau, who said that “we do not ride upon the railroad, it rides upon us.” An unidentified merchant of the day summed up his feelings this way: “If one could stop when one wanted and if one were not locked up with 50 or 60 tobacco chewers; and the engine and fire did not burn holes in one’s clothes…and the smell of the smoke, of the oil and of the chimney did not poison one…and one were not in danger of being blown sky-high or knocked off the rails-it would be the perfection of traveling.”
The Erie Canal, responsible for Buffalo’s rapid growth in the early 19th century, had its limitations too. The shipping season was at the mercy of New York’s winters – ice stopped everything for the season. The canal route was fixed; rails could be laid right up to a factory’s door. Trains were a lot faster than canal barges, even in those days. The change was gradual as the railroads managed their way through growing pains, but it was inevitable that the railroads would become supreme.