Great Lakes | lake system, North America | Britannica.com lake system, North America Rush–Bagot Agreement Great Lakes, chain of deep freshwater lakes in east-central North America comprising Lakes Superior , Michigan , Huron , Erie , and Ontario . They are one of the great natural features of the continent and of the Earth . Although Lake Baikal in Russia has a larger volume of water, the combined area of the Great Lakes—some 94,250 square miles (244,106 square kilometres)—represents the largest surface of fresh water in the world, covering an area exceeding that of the United Kingdom . Their drainage basin of about 295,710 square miles (which includes the areas of the lakes themselves and their connecting waterways) extends approximately 690 miles from north to south and about 860 miles from Lake Superior in the west to Lake Ontario in the east. Except for Lake Michigan, the lakes provide a natural border between Canada and the United States , a frontier that was stabilized by a boundary-waters treaty of 1909. It is a source of pride for both countries that there are no fortifications or warships along the boundary.

Marquette Harbor Lighthouse on Lake Superior, Marquette, Michigan. Dale Fisher, US Army Corps of Engineers The Great Lakes and their drainage basin. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Individually, the lakes rank among the 14 largest in the world . They played a central role in the European colonization and development of North America and for decades have attracted people and industry; Lakes Erie and Ontario and the southern portion of Lake Michigan are now ringed with large population concentrations. The lakes have not benefited from this development, however, and have been seriously affected by pollution . Concern over the fate of the lakes reached a high pitch in the late 20th century, with both the U.S. and the Canadian governments and individuals investigating methods for reversing the consequences of years of misuse of the lakes’ waters. Areas and volumes of the Great Lakes surface area Lake Michigan The Great Lakes form the western portion of the larger St. Lawrence hydrographic system. This system extends generally eastward from the St. Louis River in Minnesota (which flows into Lake Superior), through the lakes and the St. Lawrence River, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

For a discussion of the system east of Lake Ontario, see Saint Lawrence River and Seaway . Physical features Geology The age of the Great Lakes is still not definitely determined. Estimates range from 7,000 to 32,000 years of age. Water began filling the glacially scoured basins as soon as the ice receded, some 14,000 years ago. It is generally accepted that Lake Erie reached its present level about 10,000 years ago, Lake Ontario about 7,000 years ago, and Lakes Huron, Michigan , and Superior some 3,000 years ago. The present configuration of the Great Lakes basin is the result of the movement of massive glaciers through the mid-continent, a process that began about one million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch . Studies in the Lake Superior region indicate that a river system and valleys formed by water erosion existed before the Ice Age. The glaciers undoubtedly scoured these valleys, widening and deepening them and radically changing the drainage of the area. The last glaciation in North America is called the Wisconsin Glacial Stage because it left many fresh landforms and sediments in that state.

As the ice sheet melted and receded about 14,000 years ago, the first segments of the Great Lakes were created. Lake Chicago, in what is now the southern Lake Michigan basin, and Lake Maumee, in present-day western Lake Erie and its adjacent lowlands, originally drained southward into the Mississippi River through the Illinois and Wabash drainages, respectively. As the ice retreat continued, Lake Maumee was drained into Lake Chicago through a valley that now contains the Grand River in Michigan. Eventually, drainage to the east and into the Atlantic Ocean was established, at one time down the valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers and then along the course of the upper St. Lawrence River. At one high-water stage, the waters of the Huron and Michigan basin formed one large lake— Lake Algonquin . At the same time, Lake Duluth, in the western Lake Superior basin, also drained to the Mississippi. Britannica Stories Scipio Africanus the Elder Lake levels generally vary about one to two feet throughout the year, the highest levels occurring in mid-summer and the lowest in late winter. There are small tides of about two inches, but they are relatively unimportant.

Seiches—harmonic oscillations of the lakes—are caused by such atmospheric disturbances as winds or differences in barometric pressure. They have resulted in water piling up temporarily on one side, or end, of the lakes and have caused differences in the water level between Buffalo, N.Y., and Toledo , Ohio, on Lake Erie, as high as 13 feet or more. Currents are highly variable, they respond quickly to wind changes, and their direction is determined by the rotation of the Earth and the shape of the lake basins. The Great Lakes have bicarbonate-rich waters, the alkalinity of which ranges from 46 parts per million of carbonates in Lake Superior to 113 parts per million in Lake Michigan. Because Lake Huron is fed by both Superior and Michigan, its chemical content lies in the middle of the range. Alkalinity then increases slightly as the waters flow into and through Lakes Erie and Ontario. The high carbonate content of the waters is because of the abundance of limestone and dolomite rocks in the basin. The overall chemical composition of the lakes does not differ greatly from that of other large bodies of fresh water.

Limestone in the Lake Michigan basin supplies large amounts of calcium and magnesium to the system, while sodium concentrations are greater than those of magnesium in Erie and Ontario. Although chemical distribution is relatively uniform in any one lake, concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen are greatest along the shores, in bays and harbours, and especially near urban centres. During the 20th century, concentrations of most chemicals have increased significantly in all the lakes except Superior. Chloride, sodium, and sulfate have increased considerably in Lakes Erie, Michigan, and Ontario. Chloride concentrations have increased almost four times over levels reported in 1900, and limited data for Lake Erie indicate that nitrogen concentrations increased fivefold and phosphorus threefold in 30 years. Special importance is attached to these nutrients because they stimulate growth of algae, and their increased concentrations reflect the process of nutrient enrichment called eutrophication. Plant and animal life Diatoms —microscopic algae with glasslike shells of silica—are the major forms of algae, although green and blue-green algae are abundant during the summer in Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan. Copepods and cladocerans, microscopic crustaceans, are important in the animal forms of plankton .

Most abundant during the spring months in the upper lakes, plankton reaches two peaks of abundance—spring and fall—in the lower lakes and in the more productive waters of the upper lakes. The organisms living on the bottom in shallow waters are the same kinds of snails, clams, worms, mayflies, and caddisflies found in most small lakes. The deep waters, however, are the realm of some organisms that are found only in the deep, cold lakes of the northern latitudes. These include the delicate opossum shrimp, the deepwater scud (a crustacean), two types of copepods, and the deepwater sculpin (a spiny, large-headed fish). During the 1980s two nonindigenous creatures—the spiny water flea (a crustacean) and the zebra mussel (a mollusk)—gained access to the lakes and established large populations. Both have threatened the food web of native species, and the zebra mussel has become a nuisance by clogging water-intake pipes, covering spawning reefs, and fouling boat hulls. The fish community of the lakes and tributaries includes representatives of most families of North American fishes.

Lake trout , whitefish , salmon , and lake herring have always been important in the lakes, while perch, walleye, bass, and catfish are abundant in the shallow, warmer waters. The fish population has changed drastically over the past century. By 1880 the damming and pollution of tributaries had caused the elimination of Atlantic salmon and the restriction of whitefish. At the same time, lake sturgeon were purposely overfished, and carp were introduced. Smelt entered Lake Michigan in 1927 and in a short time had spread throughout the lakes; however, since the early 1980s their populations have dwindled dramatically. The predatory sea lamprey migrated into the upper lakes and established spawning populations in the 1930s, causing the collapse of the lake trout populations in Lakes Huron and Michigan by the early 1950s. Other large predators also were drastically reduced in numbers by the sea lamprey. Consequently, when the alewife migrated into the upper lakes between 1931 and 1954, it met little competition and predation and soon became the most abundant species.

Alewives are of little commercial value, however, and have caused costly sanitary operations when, periodically, millions of them die and are washed up to rot on the beaches. A major international program to control the sea lamprey reduced its population substantially; and during the 1960s lake trout were reintroduced when it appeared that the sea lamprey was under control. Coho and chinook salmon were introduced both to provide a sports fishery and to control the alewife. Among the accidently introduced species, the small, perchlike ruffe preys on the eggs of native fishes, while the bottom-dwelling round goby competes for food and habitat with indigenous species. Herring and ring-billed gulls and terns are the most common birds; small islands are important nesting grounds for them. The lakes are important as wintering areas for ducks such as the scaup and the old-squaw duck, and a diversity of shorebirds and songbirds migrate through the region during the spring and fall. Various places along the shoreline, such as Point Pelée (Ontario) in Lake Erie and Whitefish Point (Michigan) in Lake Superior, are favoured locations for bird-watching.

The economy Early interest in the lakes was stimulated by the easy transportation route that they offered into the heartland of the continent. The value of the extensive forests and fertile land in the region was soon realized, and lumbering and agriculture became important. Large coalfields and deposits of iron, copper, salt, limestone, and other minerals were found along or near the extensive shorelines. The combination of these vast resources with a plentiful water supply naturally favoured the development of huge industries and large metropolitan areas around the Great Lakes. Major urbanized areas include a band that extends from Milwaukee , Wis., through Chicago and around southern Lake Michigan; a band that stretches southward from Detroit, Mich., and then continues along the southern shore of Lake Erie; and the Toronto-Hamilton area on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Resources Although most of the virgin pine forests in the basin were felled by 1910, timber remains important and is supported by both federal and state governments. About half of the land in the counties bordering the lakes in the United States is devoted to farming, while nearly one-third of that in the bordering Canadian provinces is under agriculture.

The major crops raised are corn (maize), soybeans, wheat, animal fodder, and fruits and vegetables; pork, beef, and dairy products are produced as well. The ranges around Lake Superior—such as the Mesabi in Minnesota and the Marquette in Michigan—are a major source of iron ore for the United States. Peak production occurred in 1953, when almost 100 million net tons were produced. The large deposits of rich ores have since been depleted, but low-grade taconite ores are now efficiently processed into iron-ore pellets. Lake Superior’s Keweenaw Peninsula was once a major source of copper; sources outside of the lakes are now relatively more important. Sand dunes along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan are valued for their beauty and as a source of clean sand for industry. Of major importance is the water supply that the lakes provide for bordering industries and municipalities. Hydroelectric generating stations exist on the St. Marys, Niagara, and St. Lawrence rivers. Numerous coal- and nuclear-powered generating plants around the lakes utilize lake water for cooling. Industry and transportation The industry of the lakes region is highly diversified.

The large steel mills in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario and the automobile industry centred in the Detroit area produce a large proportion of the continent’s steel and motor vehicles. Nonetheless, many more workers are employed in the service industry. Most of the total shipping tonnage includes iron ore, coal , grain, and limestone for lake ports, but some tonnage is shipped overseas through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Welland Canal allows passage around Niagara Falls from Lake Ontario into Lake Erie, and the channels and locks in the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie have made Lake Superior accessible to ships up to 800 feet in length. Fishing and recreation Commercial fishing was once a primary industry on the lakes, but the decline of the more desirable species led to its collapse. A limited amount of commercial fishing is still carried on, however, for species such as whitefish. Emphasis has switched to sport fishing based on coho and chinook salmon, lake trout, walleye, and rainbow trout; this has grown into a major industry. The value of the lakes for a broad spectrum of recreational activities is inestimable.

Powerboating and sailing have become popular activities, and numerous marinas have been built. Many miles of high-quality, sandy beaches stretch along the lake shores. State, provincial, federal, and county lands offer hundreds of camping, picnicking, and park areas for a thriving tourist industry. Sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. Bullaty-Lomeo—The Image Bank/Getty Images Human impact on the lakes The multiple uses of the lakes are often conflicting. The shipping and hydroelectric-power industries favour higher water levels, for example, but property owners along the shoreline find that high levels increase erosion of the shoreline. Conservationists believe that the diversion of treated sewage away from the lakes, such as is being done at Chicago and various other cities, is the best solution for maintaining the quality of the lake waters. Regardless of the approach that is taken, it is clear that changes have occurred in the plant and animal life of the lakes and that these changes have been related to increases in the content of introduced chemicals, depletion of dissolved oxygen in some places, and the accumulation of sewage sludge on lake bottoms near urban areas. Significant changes first became noticeable in about 1900 and paralleled the buildup of human population around the lakes.

Misuse of the lakes became all too apparent and was perhaps most clearly dramatized by the growing number of beaches that were closed after 1950 because of pollution; but the less obvious accumulation of toxic substances in wildlife, especially fish and fish-eating birds, had much more serious implications . It came to be realized that pollution could affect either directly or indirectly all uses—raising the cost of water treatment, killing valuable fish species or rendering other species unfit to eat, and adversely affecting the tourist industry and the value of shoreline property. Since the 1970s a major cooperative effort at pollution control has been undertaken by authorities in Canada and the United States, and this has resulted in improved water quality and the resurgence of some fish populations. Study and exploration The Great Lakes region was inhabited for centuries by numerous American Indian peoples. With the colonization and expansion of European peoples in North America, the lakes became an integral part of the exploration and development of the continent.

It was once speculated that Vikings explored the region in the 14th century—based on the discovery of a broken sword, an ax, and a shield boss near Nipigon Lake, Ont., and a rune stone at Kensington, Minn.—but it is much more likely that the first Europeans entered the region in 1535, when the French explorer Jacques Cartier traveled up the St. Lawrence River to the site of modern Montreal in his search for a route to the Orient. The Huron Indians told him of the great seas lying beyond, but the upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario were controlled by the Iroquois, who were unfriendly to the Europeans. Consequently, further exploration by another leading French explorer of North America, Samuel de Champlain , followed the course of the Ottawa River , Lake Nipissing, and the French River to Georgian Bay. He reached Lake Huron in 1615 and is credited with being the first European to see the Great Lakes.

In 1634 Jean Nicolet —dispatched by Champlain to seek a route to China—led an expedition into Lake Michigan and down the length of Green Bay to the Fox River, where he encountered the Winnebago Indians. Other French explorers, including René-Robert Cavelier, Lord de La Salle , explored the lakes, made peace with the Indians, and established early settlements. Three major conflicts affected the history and development of the Great Lakes. The French and Indian War (1754–63)—a struggle between the French and British to gain control of rich fur-producing lands—concluded with the cession of Canada to England. The main consequences of the American Revolution (1775–83) for the Great Lakes region were the migration of thousands of loyalists to New Brunswick , Nova Scotia , Quebec , and Ontario and the establishment of the present international boundary between the United States and Canada. During the War of 1812 , Lake Erie was the site of a major naval battle.

Although several of the early explorers recorded observations of short-term fluctuations in water levels in early geographic writings, the first purely scientific expedition on the Great Lakes was not carried out until 1848. It was led by the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz and concentrated on studies of the north shore of Lake Superior. Water-level gauges were established in all the lakes by 1860, and all waters were charted by 1882. Studies of plant and animal life began in the 1870s, and the first study of lake currents was conducted in the early 1890s. Research on the lakes since 1900 largely has been in response to a sequence of crises. The collapse of the lake-herring fishing industry in the 1920s resulted in two major studies of Lake Erie. The invasion of the sea lamprey in the 1930s and concern over lake pollution and eutrophication since World War II has led to international research and cooperation for mitigative measures. Since 1980 additional research has been stimulated by concerns over shoreline erosion and the possible effects of global climatic change. Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?

- The New York Sun Can Buffalo Ever Come Back? By EDWARD L. GLAESER | October 19, 2007 Click Image to Enlarge CM / AP The federal government has spent billions of dollars on Buffalo and other failing cities seeking to revitalize them. At the onset of the Great Depression, Buffalo had 573,000 inhabitants, making it the 13th-largest city in America. In the 75 years that followed, this once-mighty metropolis lost 55% of its population, a decline most dramatic in its blighted inner city but also apparent in its broader metropolitan area, one of the 20 most quickly deteriorating such regions in the nation. 27% of Buffalo's residents are poor, more than twice the national average. The median family income is just $33,000, less than 60% of the nationwide figure of $55,000. Buffalo's collapseï¿½and that of other troubled upstate New York cities like Syracuse and Rochesterï¿½seems to cry out for a policy response. Couldn't Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer use their influence on Capitol Hill to bring some needed relief?

The truth is, the federal government has already spent vast sums of taxpayer money over the past half-century to revitalize Buffalo, only to watch the city continue to decay. Future federal spending that tries to revive the city will likely prove equally futile. The federal government should instead pursue policies that help Buffalo's citizens, not the city as a geographical place. State and local policymakers could take steps that mightï¿½mightï¿½help Buffalo stave off its demise, if they avoid the errors of the past. But make no mistake: Buffalo faces long odds. The history of Buffalo helps us understand why it continues to lose people and why it will be hard to reverse the trend. Historians often overstate the importance of the Erie Canal to New York City's expansion: Gotham grew just as quickly before the canal was dug. But there's no question that the canal, which connected Lake Erie to the Hudson Riverï¿½and, therefore, the Great Lakes to the Atlanticï¿½was a critical factor in the growth of upstate cities located on it, such as Buffalo. Before the canal, Buffalo had 2,500 residents and specialized in commerce along the Great Lakes.

After the canal, the city's population exploded, reaching 8,600 people by 1830 and 18,000 by 1840. Many of those new residents helped transfer goods, especially wheat, from the large boats that plied the Great Lakes to the smaller, 50-ton barges that traveled eastward via the canal. By the early 1840s, Buffalo was moving 2 million bushels of grain a year from boat to barge. It was a revolution in transportation, even more dramatic than the railroads that later gave upstate New York towns vital access to eastern markets and the Atlantic seaboard. At first, the grain moved by hand. But cities often foster innovation, and so it proved in Buffalo. In 1842, a local merchant, Joseph Dart, borrowed an idea from the brilliant Pittsburgh miller Oliver Evans, installing a steam-driven machine that scooped wheat out of cargo ships on Lake Erie and then dumped it into a silo. Dart's grain elevators could handle 1,000 bushels daily, allowing ships to unload in a single day.

They became a noticeable part of Buffalo's skyline and a key element of the city's emergence as the world's leading grain port. During the early twentieth century, Buffalo first challenged, and then surpassed, Minneapolis as a mill town, and the canal was the main reason. Since so much wheat flowed through Buffalo, it made sense to start milling it there and then to ship the flour onward. Almost half of Buffalo's wheat left the country, much of it sailing across the Atlantic to European markets. Over time, the city's water-based transportation advantages also encouraged heavy industrial development. The Lackawanna Steel and Iron Company, for instance, relocated its center of operations from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Buffalo early in the twentieth century. The upstate city's canal location made it easy to ship iron there from the Lake Michigan area, and to turn it into steel with the aid of coal transported north from Pennsylvania. Buffalo had an extra geographic advantage that helped make it an early-twentieth-century powerhouse: Niagara Falls. The rushing water was a potent source of energy, harnessed to produce the electricity that surged through an enormous underground tunnel to power the city.

By 1901, Buffalo took to calling itself the City of Light, so abundant was the electricity delivered by the falls and Westinghouse generators. The electricity would be an added draw for firms, such as Union Carbide and the Aluminum Company of America, that needed plentiful power. The 1920s were the last real growth period for Buffalo. During the thirties, the city's population began to level off, and after its 1950 high of 580,000, it began to fall precipitouslyï¿½down 50,000 people by the end of the decade. Buffalo's worst decade was the 1970s, when it lost 100,000 residents and much of its middle class. Today, its population stands well under 300,000. A major culprit in Buffalo's collapse was a shift in transportation technology, reducing the importance of the Erie Canal and of the cities that arose to take advantage of it. In the 1830s, you would have been mad to set up a manufacturing firm in New York State that didn't have access to the canal or some other waterway.

Starting in the 1910s, though, trucks made it easy to deliver products and get deliveriesï¿½all you needed was a nearby highway. Rail became more efficient: the real cost of transporting a ton one mile by rail has fallen 90% since 1900. Then the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1957, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and allowing grain shipments to bypass Buffalo altogether. These shocks didn't just hit the New York canal cities; every city on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, its water-based advantages eroded, lost industries to areas with cheaper labor costs. Other trends compounded Buffalo's woes. Improvements in electricity transmission made companies' proximity to Niagara Falls increasingly irrelevant. Mechanization meant that the industry that did remain in the city needed fewer bodies. The appeal of the automobile induced many to leave the older center cities for the suburbs, where property was plentiful and cheaper, or to abandon the area altogether for cities like Los Angeles, built around the car. And Buffalo's dismal weather didn't help.

January temperatures are one of the best predictors of urban success over the last half-century, with colder climes losing outï¿½and Buffalo isn't just cold during the winter: blizzards regularly shut the city down completely. The invention of air conditioners and certain public health advances made warmer states even more alluring. In general, when cities shrink, poverty isn't far behind, for two reasonsï¿½one obvious, the other subtler. The obvious reason: urban populations fall because of relocation of industry and drop in labor demand; as jobs vanish, people living in a city get poorer. The subtler reason: declining areas also become magnets for poor people, attracted by cheap housing. This is exactly what happened to Buffalo, whose median home value is just $61,000, far below the state average of $260,000. More than 10% of Buffalo's residents in 2000, it's worth noting, had moved there since 1995. The influx of the poor reinforces a city's downward spiral, since it drives up public expenditures while doing little to expand the local tax base.

State and local government did little to improve Buffalo's chancesï¿½in fact, they worsened things considerably. First, New York's high taxes, burdensome regulations, and pro-union laws made Buffalo less attractive to employers than its more successful southern competitors. In 1975, the Fantus Legislative Business Climate rankings sorted the American states based on corporate taxes, workers' compensation laws, and many other rules. New York was the least business-friendly of the 48 states in the continental U.S. Being antibusiness might have been feasible when New York enjoyed strong natural advantages, but not after those advantages eroded. Despite 50 years of population loss, Buffalo has one of the steepest metropolitan tax burdens in the countryï¿½including one of the nation's highest local property tax rates, according to a 2003 study. Buffalo also suffered from lousy local politics. During the 1960s, the city government failed to deliver either safety or good schools. Race riots shook the area, and crime rose steadily. Fiscal crises became epidemic. Buffalo had difficulty recruiting police because of low wages and the dangers of the street.

Leadership was especially dismal during the late sixties and early seventies, the city's worst years. Mayor Frank Sedita, who faced ceaseless fiscal problems and surging violence from 1966 to 1973, was a traditional urban politician, better at playing to the city's various ethnicities than at confronting its ongoing crisis. As the 1970s went on, cities began to acknowledge, however grudgingly, that the high costs of concentrated poverty made it disastrous to keep repelling the well-off and attracting the poor. The exodus of the middle class and businesses led many cities to repudiate tax-and-spend left-liberal politicians, who had dominated urban politics in the sixties, in favor of pragmatic leaders promising a better deal for more prosperous residents. In 1977, for instance, New York City voters rejected left-liberals Abe Beame and Bella Abzug and elected reformer Ed Koch. And in Buffalo's mayoral race that year, voters rejected a left-leaning Democrat, Arthur Eve, and embraced James Griffin, the law-and-order candidate of the Conservative and Right-to-Life Parties. Like Mr. Koch, Mr.

Griffin focused on improving basic city services, such as public safety, and encouraging business investment. But while Mr. Koch presided over the first sparks of New York's eventual Giuliani-era renaissance, Buffalo remained mired in poverty and dysfunction because, unlike the Big Apple, it lacked a healthy private sector. Manhattan's financial-services sector created an engine of economic success, with innovation following innovation. During the 1960s, investors developed more accurate ways to assess risk, which in turn made it possible for Michael Milken to find a wider market for riskier bonds. Those high-risk bonds then enabled the corporate takeover movement of the 1980s, which created huge amounts of value by cutting managerial fat and forcing greater efficiencies on firms across America. Later still, the same finance-based innovation dynamo brought more economic success to Manhattan with mortgage-backed securities and hedge funds. New York City, in other words, transformed itself from a manufacturing center into a place that thrived on producing new ideas. The other old, cold cities that staved off decline, like Boston and Minneapolis, similarly reinvented themselves, with the density that once served to move cargo onto ships now helping spread the latest ideas. The key ingredient: human capital.

The cities that bounced back did so thanks to smart entrepreneurs, who figured out new ways for their cities to thrive. The share of the population possessing college degrees in the 1970s is the best predictor of which northeastern and midwestern cities have done well since then. Buffalo wasn't a particularly skilled city in 1970, and it isn't one now. Fewer than 19% of the city's adults boast a college degree; the number in Manhattan is 57.5%. Whereas New York always had some industries, such as finance, that required brainpower, Buffalo's industries were invariably brawn-based. Buffalo wasn't a university town like Boston, and it didn't have Minneapolis's Scandinavian passion for good lower education. It had the right skill mix for making steel or flour, not for flourishing in the information age. Since the 1950s, the federal government has showered billions upon billions of dollars on Buffalo and other failing cities, seeking to revitalize them. The spending reflected a natural, humane impulse. But none of it worked, as Buffalo's entrenched poverty and shrinking population testify.

In 1957, for example, the federal Urban Renewal Association provided more than $9 million ($65 million in today's dollars) to rebuild the Ellicott district in the city's downtown area. The Ellicott rehabilitation followed what became the classic urban renewal scriptï¿½replacing slums with middle-income housing, commercial development, and more open space. The program removed 2,000 residents, the majority of them black, and relocated many to new public-housing projects. Yet just ten years later, officials were describing the program as a "dismal failure." Despite millions spent, living conditions for the poor seemed no better, and the city certainly wasn't on the mend. After Ellicott, Buffalo, with Washington's help, turned its attention to redeveloping its waterfront. In 1969, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development supported the construction of the 40-story Marine Midland Center, a bank headquarters designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Twenty-seven years later, the public contributed more than $50 million to build the Marine Midland Arena nearby to house hockey's Buffalo Sabres.

While the public money created splendid waterfront edifices, it did little to stem residents' flight from the city. Buffalo's metropolitan rail system, which opened in 1985, is the most expensive of the city's revitalization efforts. The system took over six years and $500 million to build, with most of the money coming from Washington. Many have lauded the system for its cleanness and efficiency. But why sink so much money into rail lines when Buffalo has lots of highways and abundant parking? The system's ridership has been declining steadily for over a decade. All this spending aimed at resurrecting Buffalo as a placeï¿½very different from government aid that seeks to help disadvantaged people, such as the Earned Income Tax Creditï¿½was destined to fail. Urban migrations aren't random. America's deserts and mountain ranges aren't densely inhabited for a good reason: few people want to live in such harsh places. Similarly, people and firms are leaving Buffalo for the Sunbelt because the Sunbelt is a warmer, more pleasant, and more productive area to live. The federal government shouldn't be bribing them, in effect, to stay in the city. Such bribes are notoriously ineffective.

Scores of close to worthless urban projects have received government funding not because any cost-benefit analysis has justified them but because of hazy claims that they would make some once-great area thrive again. It's almost impossible to imagine that the billions already spent on Buffalo's urban-renewal projects would satisfy any reasonable cost-benefit analysis for helping to reverse the city's decline. The desire of people and firms to move is just too strong. For the government to tear down old houses and build new ones in a place like Buffalo is particularly misguided. The hallmark of declining cities is having an excess of housing relative to demand. Econ 101 teaches us that any further increases in housing supply will just push prices down more. No mayor ever got reelected by making it easy for his citizens to move to Atlanta, of course, even when that might be a pretty good outcome for the movers themselves. But just because local politicians will eagerly seek federal place-based spending doesn't mean that the feds should comply. A sensible federal approach for upstate New York would invest in people-based policies that improve the economic futures of the children growing up there. Education is the best tool we have to fight poverty.

If the children of upstate cities were better educated, then they would earn more as adultsï¿½whether they stayed in their hometowns or moved to Las Vegas. And people-based policies may actually motivate states and cities to spend more wisely, in order to retain their newly educated and mobile residents. As for state and local politicians, reducing New York's unnecessary taxes and regulation would be a good idea, since if Buffalo is ever to rebound, even somewhat, private innovators, not government projects, will be the primary reason. Better schools and safe streets would also be key to improving Buffalo's chances of survival. Yet though such policies would improve things, they would not restore the boomtown of the early twentieth century; the economic trends working against such a prospect are simply too great. The best scenario would be for Buffalo to become a much smaller but more vibrant communityï¿½shrinking to greatness, in effect. Far better that outcome than wasting yet more effort and resources on the foolish project of restoring the City of Light's past glory. Edward L. Glaeser is a professor of economics at Harvard University and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. Adapted from the Autumn issue of City Journal.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the new york sun's free mailing list Buffalo Maps and Orientation: Buffalo, New York - NY, USA Buffalo Maps and Orientation (Buffalo, New York - NY, USA) Located on the far westerly side of New York State and close to the Canadian border, Buffalo lies alongside Lake Erie and the Niagara River. The city serves as the seat for Erie County and is a part of the sprawling Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Various freeways and major roads intersect and bound the city. The Buffalo Skyway (NY-5) is one such road and heads in a northwest to southeast direction, next to Lake Erie and passing by the Tifft Nature Preserve. The Niagara Thruway (Interstate I-90) connects Kaisertown in the east with Grand Island and the Niagara Falls area to the far northwest.

The eastern side of the city is edged by the New York State Thruway (Interstate I-90), which links West Seneca in the south with Cheektowaga, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the Westwood Country Club, before becoming the Youngmann Memorial Highway (Interstate I-290) and joining the Lockport Expressway (Interstate I-990). Maps and Orientation of the City Those who appreciate fine architecture should grab a map and take a stroll around the city of Buffalo. Look out for the imposing Prudential Building on Church Street, the eye-catching Art Deco facade of the City Hall on Niagara Square, and also the Old Post Office and its Neo Gothic character, as well as the famous houses of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Albany - 288 miles / 463 km (seven hours, east) Bliss - 52 miles / 84 km (one hour and 15 minutes, southeast) Colden - 27 miles / 43 km (40 minutes, south) Dansville - 85 miles / 137 km (two hours, southeast) Lockport - 29 miles / 47 km (45 minutes, northeast) Medina - 43 miles / 69 km (one hour and ten minutes, northeast) Niagara Falls - 22 miles / 35 km (35 minutes, northwest) Great Lakes travel guide - Wikitravel Do[ edit ][ add listing ] Many boaters use the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway and their connection points as a travel route. There are many marinas and public boat ramps available for this purpose. Also, the Great Lakes Cruising Company [1] and the American Canadian Caribbean Line [2] provide cruises on the Great Lakes.

Zebra mussels Swimmers have the invasive species of zebra mussels from the Caspian Sea to thank for the clear waters—each one of the billions, the size of a fingernail, filters nearly a liter per day. They have been enormously disruptive to local ecosystems, and their sharp shells are a terrible hassle for anyone trying to clean the hull of their boat, but they have had a couple pleasant side effects. In addition to making the waters such a lovely clear crystal blue, their filtering efforts have increased population and size of smallmouth bass in Lake Erie and yellow perch in Lake St. Clair. Great Lakes Beaches are something most of the world has overlooked. While yes, for most of the year, it's too cold to swim, the southern coasts actually boast some fantastic beaches in the summer months. The lakes are big enough to make you feel like you are at the ocean, with waves to boot, but without the annoying salt and jellyfish. And throughout much of the water system, the water is actually clean enough to drink (not recommended) and certainly clear enough where you can freely open your eyes underwater.

Some of the most famous beaches include the Great Lakes' longest at Wasaga Beach in Central Ontario , the beach volleyball hub of the Midwest at Lincoln Park Beach in Chicago , the beautiful beaches along the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore , and the affluent beach communities along Chicago's version of the Hamptons in Harbor Country , Michigan . And even when it's too cold for swimming, several beaches throughout the region are actually known for surfing. Buy[ edit ][ add listing ] There isn't any one sort of souvenir or good associated with the Great Lakes (aside, perhaps, from American automobiles), but there are plenty of great places to go shopping. Chicago 's Magnificent Mile is renowned as one of the world's truly great retail strips. Yorkville serves much the same purpose in Toronto . A smaller retail location is in Detroit 's Renaissance Center, which is probably worth a visit regardless of whether you want to shop at its many stores and souvenir shops. Tower City Center in Cleveland is another major shopping complex, with retail running the gamut from high end boutiques to low-end national franchises and back again. Eat[ edit ][ add listing ] Rugged coast line at Cave Point County Park, Wisconsin . What could possibly unite the disparate culinary regions of the Great Lakes?

Oh right, fish. Lake trout, wild salmon, chubs, smelt, perch, walleye, and whitefish are all very popular both among recreational and commercial fishers throughout the region. Smoked fish and shrimp is especially popular in small "shacks," particularly along the industrial shores of southwestern Lake Michigan, and you should jump at the chance to try some. Similarities end at fish, however. The Chicagoland area is a culinary delight, from high end contemporary American in Chicago , to low end regional fast food like Chicago-style pizza, hot dogs, etc., and cuisines brought their via the tides of immigration from the American South , Greece , Middle East , Mexico , Vietnam , etc. Toronto rivals Chicago for international cuisine, both high and low end, with enormous immigrant populations from all over Asia especially. Drink[ edit ][ add listing ] There is one city in this region synonymous with drinking, and that is Milwaukee . Brew City was for a long time the world's leading beer producer, and remains firmly associated with the drink both in the popular culture ideal and the reality of the city's great nightlife.

While none can rival that of Milwaukee, the cities and towns lining the Great Lakes largely share its affection for the drink, particularly in can form, accompanied with cheap shots of liquor. High end nightlife in the Great Lakes congregates in both Chicago and Toronto . Live music, however, is much more widespread, with vibrant independent music scenes throughout all the major cities, especially in Chicago and Detroit . Get out[ edit ] Where next? Perhaps the obvious choice would be to head deeper into the American Midwest perhaps down the Mississippi River towards St. Louis , Memphis , and New Orleans or down through the cornfields to Indianapolis . Following the waterways east takes you along the St. Lawrence River towards Montreal , Quebec City , and on to Canada 's Atlantic Provinces . Or you could turn south from the St. Lawrence towards Lake Champlain to get to Lake George and the Adirondacks . Keep following I-90 west to get deep into the American Interior. It will eventually take you into the Black Hills and Badlands region of South Dakota , home to Mount Rushmore (and a lot of bison), and on to Wyoming .

Alternatively one might find great intrigue in the pristine Muskoka by driving roughly 2.5 hours North from Toronto, where a unique culture of multiple small-medium sized towns ( Bracebridge , Gravenhurst ) are situated amongst a landscape of many thousands of small lakes and interconnecting roads. It's a great place to see the stars and listen to wildlife without the constant roar of a highway in the distance and also while not forfeiting any convenience. This is a usable article. It gives a good overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow ! SAILING THE GREAT LAKES on the SS SOUTH AMERICAN and SS NORTH AMERICAN | Cruising The Past Contact & Comments SAILING THE GREAT LAKES on the SS SOUTH AMERICAN and SS NORTH AMERICAN Posted by: Michael L.

Grace February 13, 2011 in STEAMSHIP LINES Comments Off on SAILING THE GREAT LAKES on the SS SOUTH AMERICAN and SS NORTH AMERICAN Cruise and liner history: SAILING THE GREAT LAKES on the SS SOUTH AMERICAN and SS NORTH AMERICAN The history of commercial passenger shipping on the Great Lakes is long but uneven. It reached its zenith between the mid-19th century and the 1950s. As early as 1844, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes. By 1900, fleets of relatively luxurious passenger steamers plied the waters of the lower lakes, especially the major industrial centers of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto. The first steamboat on the Great Lakes was the passenger carrying Walk-In-The-Water, built in 1818 to navigate Lake Erie. It was a success and more vessels like it followed. Steamboats on the lakes grew in size and number, and additional decks were built on the superstructure to allow more capacity. This inexpensive method of adding capacity was adapted from river steamboats and successfully applied to lake-going craft.

The screw propeller was introduced to the Great Lakes by Vandalia in 1842 and allowed the building of a new class of combination passenger and freight carrier. The first of these “package and passenger freighters,” Hercules, was built in Buffalo, New York, in 1843. Hercules displayed all the features that defined the type, a screw propelled the vessel, passengers were accommodated in staterooms on the upper deck, and package freight below on the large main deck and in the holds. Engines developed as well. Compound engines, in which steam was expanded twice for greater efficiency, were first used on the Great Lakes in 1869. Triple-expansion engines, for even greater efficiency, were introduced in 1887 and quadruple-expansion engines, the ultimate type of reciprocating engine for speed, power and efficiency, appeared on the lakes in 1894. Great YOUTUBE video of NORTH AMERICAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN Steamboat lines were established by railroads on the Great lakes to join railheads in the 1850s.

This service carried goods and passengers from railroads in the East across the length of the lakes to railroads for the journey West. Railroads bought and built steamship lines to compliment railroad services. One such railroad-owned steamship line was formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 to connect their terminals at Buffalo to those of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Duluth, Minnesota. This new line, owned by the Erie and Western Transportation Co., became the well-known Anchor Line. A significant industry in leisure cruising arose beginning in the late 19th century, often providing large passenger vessels for charter for day trips. Infamous among these are the Eastland, which capsized in the Chicago River in 1914 with the loss of hundreds of lives, and the Noronic, which burned at the wharf in Toronto in September 1949 with the loss of 119 lives. While the ship had been known as the ‘Queen of the Great Lakes’ it is now also a symbol of the end of passenger cruises on the Great Lakes. In 1915, the anti-monopoly provisions of section 11 of the Panama Canal Act of 1912, ch.

390, 37 Stat. 560, 566 (August 24, 1912), which prohibited railroads under most circumstances from owning steamships, went into effect. As a result, railroad-owned company fleets were sold to buyers with no ownership interest in railways because under the new law railroads had to divest themselves of their marine divisions on the lakes. Under this divestiture law, The Milwaukee Clipper, for instance, was sold by the Anchor Line along with four other railroad-owned company fleets to the newly formed Great Lakes Transit Corporation. Under this flag, the Clipper carried passengers along her old route until retired in 1970. Before trains and, later, cars became prevalent, summer vacation areas in more remote areas around the Great Lakes were accessible primarily only by steamer. Northern Michigan’s tourist and resort areas began to grow in this manner in the late 1890s. In the late 19th century, many early tourists arrived at Northern Michigan resort areas via a Lake Michigan steamship. Chicago to Harbor Springs, Michigan, was a popular trip for many passengers. An elegant ship named the Manitou would make the trip in 24 hours.

In 1898, the fare was $5.00, with meals and berth extra. Another popular but less elegant ship was the North Land (Northland). Two other popular ships were the Petoskey and the Charlevoix; their time to Harbor Springs was 40 hours. The cost to take these boats in 1898 was $7.00, with meals and berth included. Early steamships stopped at Harbor Springs due to its naturally protected and very deep harbor; later, they added a stop in Petoskey. During the period between 1910 and 1931, crowds would gather at the Glen Haven docks on Saturdays and Sundays. Motorcoaches awaited newly arriving resort guests while many summer home residents rode to the docks to meet husbands or fathers arriving from the Chicago area. “They leave Chicago Friday night,” explained a tourist publication, “and get here the next morning; first stop. They’re with their families until Sunday night when the boat takes ’em back again, ready for the job. Great for ’em!”[1] The author Ernest Hemingway spent the majority of his first 22 summers in Northern Michigan, around Petoskey.

He often traveled by steamer from Chicago to Harbor Springs, a voyage that would take 32 hours. Lake Steamer: CITY OF CLEVELAND Major lines on the Great Lakes included the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company in the U.S., and in Canada, the Northern Navigation Company (later absorbed by Canada Steamship Lines). Some were affiliated with railway companies such as the Ann Arbor Railroad, the Grand Trunk Railway, and the Pere Marquette Railway (absorbed in 1947 into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway). On Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, the ships of the Owen Sound Transportation Company Limited have shuttled passengers since 1921. SS SOUTH AMERICAN was a Great Lakes steamboat built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse, Michigan. It was built in 1913 for the Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company. The vessel was launched on February 21, 1914 and was the newer of two sister ships, the older one being the SS North American.

The South American was 314 feet (96 m) in length, had a 47-foot (14 m) beam, and drew 18 feet (5.5 m). She was equipped with a 2,200 indicated horsepower quadruple-expansion steam engine and three coal-burning Scotch marine boilers. She caught fire on September 9, 1924 in winter lay-up at Holland, Michigan. Her upper works were rebuilt that winter. Also at the time, a second smokestack was added and her coal-fired boilers were converted to oil-burning. Retired from regular passenger service in 1967, the South American initiated a run the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal. In 1968, she was sold to Seafarers International Union in Piney Point, Maryland as a replacement for the North American which sank a year prior while in tow there. Failing Coast Guard inspection, she was moved to Camden, New Jersey where she rotted before being scrapped in 1992. Since the 1950s, leisure cruises have given way to ferry services on the Great Lakes, transporting people and vehicles to and from various islands.

These include Isle Royale, Pelée Island, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, Bois Blanc Island (Michigan), Bois Blanc Island (Ontario), Kelleys Island, South Bass Island, North Manitou Island, South Manitou Island, Harsens Island, the Toronto Islands. Well-known among these is the Chi-Cheemaun linking Tobermory (Ontario) with the largest freshwater island in the world, Manitoulin Island. Car ferry services also link Ludington, Michigan with Manitowoc, Wisconsin and a high-speed catamaran running between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Muskegon, Michigan. An international ferry ran on Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto from 2004 to 2005, but it was plagued with high operating costs and low demand. Although the privately-owned company was taken over by the City of Rochester, it is no longer in operation.

Question: The city of Buffalo lies on which North American Great Lake?
Answer: Lake Erie