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Buffalo and the Love Canal (more and better pics)

S

spmarshall

Guest
I had a chance to go to Buffalo and Niagara Falls two weeks ago. Most pictures are mine, but not all, as I was driving.

Started off in Niagara Falls, NY. The skyline view of the better Niagara Falls (ON), is quite good north of the falls themselves. We parked just off the Robert Moses Parkway, a quite scenic drive (though Bob Moses must be rolling in the grave - the southbound lanes were closed and is now a bicycle trail).

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From there, went on to the infamous Love Canal site on the southeast corner of Niagara Falls. The area immediately surrounding the Love Canal site is abandoned, to the east and the west, it is urban prairie, apart from a few holdouts, but a new senior's complex was installed where there used to be public housing. (Seen in the third pic below)

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Here is the Google satellite view: the Love Canal site the green strip, the neighbourhood itself around. The mall to the upper left is next on the tour.

BTW: A great souce of Love Canal info (including earlier aerial photos) is here.

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The Love Canal is near the Niagara Falls/Wheatfield border. This sign was interesting:

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And look what we encounter:

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The mall behind has seen better days.

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The next stop was the public, guided tour of the abandoned Buffalo Central Terminal, which now has a historical association to protect and restore it. They have their work cut out for them. I do wish them the best of luck. The station closed in 1979, was in good shape for another 10 years, until a salvager bought the property, stipped all valuable features and skipped town without actually paying the city.

Note: Some of these pics have been edited to improve brightness - Buffalo Terminal is very dark, given the lack of artifical and natural light.

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The former waiting room, still inaccessible to those on the tours as "it is still actively crumbling".

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The Great Hall used to go over a street, which was since closed off. City buses would load passengers under the street. I am standing on the station's parking garage - the main entrance for taxis and drop-offs was at the top, parking (and a streetcar loop) was below.

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And then off to Buffalo harbour, which has some great grit:

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And finally, drove around Buffalo's Olmstead-designed parks and parkways, and here's a pic of the Albright-Knox gallery:

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And here's some downtown shote from other trips - including the City Hall, an amazing building inside and out (I got up quickly on the pbservation tower on the same quickie trip to Rochester, though it was a hazy day)

North to the Peace Bridge:

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NE, with Statler Towers:

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Eastern view:

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South-eastern view:

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South, showing HSBC Arena and the I-190/Skyway interchange:

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Probably one of the nicest banks I've seen (Buffalo Savings Bank)

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Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Beautiful shots of the Buffalo Central Terminal. I've seen it from the outside when it was beginning to be renovated, but I've yet to see the interior.

What is that steel-frame vault under construction near Casino Niagara in the second photo?
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

more grit than a sand paper factory.

some of those photos are just spooky.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Nice tour, spm. Those abandoned beauties are such a shame.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Good pictures. Thank you. Here in Toronto we occasionally criticize Union Station but at least it is still in use, unlike so many of these nice old stations. I hope they find a real use for the one in Buffalo, to get people coming and going every day, not just as a "historic" museum.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

I'm really glad you went to Love Canal. I've been wating to go there for ages. There's something about "sites", generally notorious, now nothing/non-descript, that i think are particularly powerful. Those awful empty streets.

Love Canal was one of the first things i looked at when google maps came on line. I didn't know it was so close to the Niagra River. Niagra Falls NY is such a horrific place, outside of the bike-pathed core. The Ontario side ain't so hot either, but over there...so many little Detroits.

thanks!
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

The drive down "chemical alley" (Buffalo Ave) t/w Love Canal is, or used to be, awe-inspiring. Especially at night. Especially that weird, indescribably sweet odour I remember around the Oxy Chemical plant. Don't know if it's still there (the odour--and the plant, for that matter)

And E of the Grand Island bridge, that industrial dystopia suddenly jolts into the bucolic whitebread early-c20 suburban NFNY "panhandle". Now, that's America...

Incidentally, Buffalo Ave is the "old route" paralleling the Rbt Moses (and its extension, the LaSalle Expressway). Highly recommended, for those who love to get gynaecologically intimate w/their road tripping...
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

The art gallery reminds me of the one in Phillie.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

The building under construction is a new indoor water park being built on top of the parking garage for casino niagara.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Niagara Falls Ontario sure has this whole modern Asian look happening all of a sudden.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Ah, I love turn of the century American architecture.
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Ganj,

Don't you mean Turn of the OTHER Centure Arch...
 
Re: Buffalo and the Love Canal

Excuse my worse than usual spelling.
 

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