State Slogan: You Have the Right to Remain Silent, You Have the Right to an Attorney
Nickname: City of Good Neighbors, Queen City, City of Light
State Flower: Rose (Rosa)
Motto: Excelsior
Buffalo is an American city in western New York State. As of the census of 2000, the city had a total population of 292,648. It is the state's second-largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County. It is also the economic and cultural center of the The Buffalo-Niagara Region, a diverse metropolitan area with a population of 1.1 million people. Buffalo is also sometimes considered part of the Golden Horseshoe, an international metropolitan area of over 9.7 million people.
Buffalo lies at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the southern head of the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. European-Americans first settled there in the late-18th century. Growth was slow until the city became the western terminus of the Erie Canal some forty years later. By the turn of the next century, Buffalo was one of the country's leading cities, and by far its largest inland port. The huge grain elevators and industrial plants that the canal spawned began to disappear in the mid-20th century as the Saint Lawrence Seaway enabled water traffic to bypass the city. |
