Welcome to “From Erie Canal to Inner Loop: Spatial History of Downtown Rochester, New York,” a Public History website and Spatial History project created and led by University of Rochester History PhD Students Hannah Chhibber and Daniel McDermott. This project explores the spatial change of downtown Rochester, New York from its founding in the early-1800s to the mid-20th century. The project traces the successive transportation systems that profoundly shaped the city of today and demonstrates how these systems tended to overlap and reuse the same spaces.

To navigate the website, on the home page you can click the red squad button labeled, “explore,” that will take you to the introduction and the following five “chapters,” to read about the spatial history of downtown Rochester including how the Erie Canal shaped its early development, how the city later rerouted the canal, how railroads and other transportation transformed the city, including car culture reflected in Rochester’s formerly completed “inner loop.”

To navigate the compilation of historic maps in an interactive web application, click “Interactive Maps,” there you can explore on your own the spatial history of Rochester represented through seven maps, in addition to selecting colored lines that represent the routes of the Erie Canal, railroad stations, the subway line, the Inner Loop, and I-490. In the upper left had corner will be a “layers” tab to toggle between the different maps: 1794, 1822, 1858, 1888, 1910, 1935, 1971 and filters to choose between seeing the changing transportation routes.

The furthest right tab at the top of the home page labeled, “bibliography,” will guide you to all the secondary and primary sources cited and used for our research or included for additional information.

Special thanks to Blair Tinker, GIS Specialist at University of Rochester, Anna Grace Wenger, undergraduate at University of Rochester, Michael Jarvis, History Professor at the University of Rochester, and the staff at the Rochester Public Library’s Local History Division for assistance on securing sources, digital maps, data, and feedback.

Explore Rochester’s Transportation History

Updated: 11 October 2021