Canalside

Erie Canal terminus rebuilt as Buffalo's best public space

Canalside is the redeveloped waterfront district at the foot of Main Street, where the Erie Canal once met Lake Erie. The grain elevators that line the water's edge are Buffalo at its most monumental and most melancholy — enormous concrete cylinders, some still functioning, that made this city the grain-trading capital of North America in the late 19th century. They are now recognized as significant industrial heritage.

The public waterfront itself is open year-round. In winter it becomes a large outdoor skating rink with a warming lodge; in summer, kayaks and small sailboats launch from the marina, and weekend events pack the lawn. The Buffalo Naval and Military Park sits just north, with a decommissioned Navy destroyer and submarine you can walk through — an unlikely but enjoyable diversion.

things to do sight
A story
This stretch of waterfront was once the western terminus of the Erie Canal — the exact point where grain barges from the Midwest met Great Lakes steamers, and where Buffalo became, briefly, the second-largest port in the United States. The original canal basin was filled in during the 1850s. The grain elevators that replaced it — massive concrete cylinders visible along the waterfront — were the largest grain storage structures in the world when they were built, and influenced Le Corbusier's thinking about functional architecture.