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.”
Buffalo Becomes a City on Rails
There simply wasn’t a substitute for railroads, which were fueling the rapid industrial growth of Buffalo in the mid to late nineteenth century – and the growth of the United States as a whole.
In 1883, the New York Central railroad opened a fifteen-mile loop, known as the beltline, which circled the city. In the years prior to World War I, beltline trains left the Exchange Street station every twenty minutes, in opposite directions, with the trip around the city lasting forty-five minutes. Passengers, many of whom worked at the factories that sprung up along the beltline route, paid five cents a ride. It was also possible to begin a cross-country trip using the beltline. Riders could connect at the Exchange Street station to trains going across the country. Many thousands did just that when Buffalo hosted the Pan American Exhibition in 1901. They walked off the train into the Exhibition grounds via the Great Arrow station, near the present-day intersection of Delaware and Linden in North Buffalo. It could be argued that this was a more efficient transportation system than today’s.
After World War I passenger trains on the beltline were superseded by busses and streetcars, but industries along its route are still served today. For many years there was an inner and an outer loop, although many obsolete sections have since been removed in favor of streets, recreational trails, and housing developments – including the LaSalle station (below).
1913 photo of the Beltline station at Main and LaSalle Streets. (Library of Congress)
The site is near the present-day Metro Rail station but the tracks are gone, replaced by residential and commercial development that stretches from the site across North Buffalo.
Obviously a closely guarded secret at the time, among the more famous cargo to travel the beltline was the Bell XP59-A, America’s first jet aircraft. The first “Airacomet,” as the plane was known, left the Bell plant (which was previously Ford, later the Trico plant) on Main St. near Jewett Pkwy on its trip to be flight-tested at Edwards Air Force base in California.
Despite the accident rates (see previous post) the rapid growth of railroads continued unabated. By 1897 the city of Buffalo, 43 square miles in area, had over 600 miles of track within its borders – more track than New York, Chicago, or St. Louis had at the time.
1913 photo of the Beltline station at Kensington and Wyoming Avenues, in the Central Park district of Buffalo.
(Library of Congress)
Like the LaSalle station (above) the tracks that served this station are gone.
A roadway now connects East Delevan Ave. with Kensington Ave.
When railroads were new, each company’s equipment operated only on its own tracks. The rails of one railroad were usually not compatible with the equipment of another as a standard track width, or gauge, was not yet agreed upon. It became clear as lines expanded that track gauge needed to be standardized. Eventually the width still in use today, four feet eight and one-half inches, was agreed upon.
Another obstacle was time. Standard time zones were adopted in the United States in 1883. Before that, every rail station had its own time. The lack of synchronization caused many collisions as opposing trains operated on their own schedules. This made it difficult for a shipper to know when (or whether) their goods would arrive at their intended destination. This was another advantage for the canal, but not enough to deter the growth of the railroads.