The One Thing You’d Change About Buffalo’s History

Buffalo is an amazing city and it has a storied amazing history that has had a significant impact on American society.

Just take a look back at its past.

Some of the greatest companies to exist got their start in Western New York. Two Three American Presidents call Buffalo home.

Of course, we all know and love the greatest football team in New York state.

However, everything about Buffalo doesn't glitter like gold. We all know about the bad things that have happened over the years. From the bickering Bills to the loss of industry and the assassination of a sitting US President.

There are plenty of bad things in Buffalo's history that we wish we could change. But, if there is one things about Buffalo's history that I'd like to change, is something that actually didn't happen in Buffalo.

It happened just across Lake Erie in a town called Welland, Ontario, Canada.

If I could change anything about Buffalo's history, it would be the construction of the fourth Welland Canal.

That canal, which was completed in 1932, had a significant impact on the amount of time it took goods from the Atlantic Ocean to make their way to the Great Lakes and midwest; and at the same time spelled the end of the Erie Canal which had its terminus in Buffalo.

Passenger and commercial boat traffic that traveled through the Erie Canal allowed Buffalo to grow to become an amazing powerhouse of a city that boasted more millionaires per capita than any other city in America in the 1800s. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and completion of the 4th Welland Canal allowed nearly all of that seagoing traffic to sail right by Buffalo, and take all of its investments with it.

Imagine, just for a second, if the Welland Canal was built in Niagara County, New York, and then connected to the already existing Erie Canal. Wow, what a place Buffalo would've been.