Editing Buffalo, New York (section)

=== <span class="anchor" id="Steel, challenges and modern era"></span>Steel, challenges, and the modern era ===
[[File:Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Aerial view of the Pan-American Exposition|Pan-American Exposition, 1901]]

At the start of the 20th century, Buffalo was the world's leading grain port and a national flour-milling hub.<ref name="Goldman1983 196-223" /> Local mills were among the first to benefit from [[hydroelectricity]] generated by the Niagara River. Buffalo hosted the 1901 [[Pan-American Exposition]] after the [[Spanish–American War]], showcasing the nation's advances in art, architecture, and electricity. Its centerpiece was the Electric Tower, with over two million light bulbs, but some exhibits were [[jingoistic]] and racially charged.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bewley |first1=Michele Ryan |title=The New World in Unity: Pan-America Visualized at Buffalo in 1901 |journal=[[New York History]] |date=2003 |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=179–203 |jstor=23183322 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23183322 |url-access=subscription |access-date=8 June 2021 |issn=0146-437X |archive-date=June 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608081958/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23183322 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Goldman1983 3-20">{{Cite book |title=High hopes: the rise and decline of Buffalo, New York |chapter=The Pan American Exposition: World's Fair as Historical Metaphor |pages=3–20 |last=Goldman |first=Mark |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1983 |isbn=9780873957342 |location=Albany, N.Y. |oclc=09110713}}</ref><ref name="Reitano2016 162-191">{{Cite book |last=Reitano |first=Joanne R. |url= |title=New York State: peoples, places, and priorities: a concise history with sources |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-69997-9 |location=New York |chapter=The Progressive State: 1900–28 |pages=162–191 |oclc=918135120 |ref=Reitano2016 |access-date=}}</ref> At the exposition, President [[William McKinley]] was [[Assassination of William McKinley|assassinated]] by [[anarchist]] [[Leon Czolgosz]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Markwyn |first1=Abigail |title=Spectacle and Politics in Buffalo and Philadelphia: The World's Fairs of 1901 and 1926 |journal=[[Reviews in American History]] |date=2018 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=624–630 |doi=10.1353/rah.2018.0094 |s2cid=150181280 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/711872 |url-access=subscription |access-date=5 June 2021}}</ref> When McKinley died, [[Theodore Roosevelt]] was sworn in at the [[Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site|Wilcox Mansion]] in Buffalo.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gee |first1=Derek |title=A Closer Look: Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site |url=https://buffalonews.com/multimedia/a-closer-look-theodore-roosevelt-inaugural-site/collection_cd666c13-cf48-5682-82dd-8a0de07e9690.html#3 |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=5 June 2021 |url-access=limited |language=en |date=February 24, 2021 |archive-date=6 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606062654/https://buffalonews.com/multimedia/a-closer-look-theodore-roosevelt-inaugural-site/collection_cd666c13-cf48-5682-82dd-8a0de07e9690.html#3 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Attorney [[John G. Milburn|John Milburn]] and local industrialists convinced the [[Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company]] to relocate from [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]] to the town of [[West Seneca, New York|West Seneca]] in 1904. Employment was competitive, with many Eastern Europeans and Scrantonians vying for jobs.<ref name="Goldman1983 124-142" /> From the late 19th century to the 1920s, [[mergers and acquisitions]] led to distant ownership of local companies; this had a negative effect on the city's economy.<ref name = "Dillaway2006 25-39">{{Cite book |title=Power failure: politics, patronage, and the economic future of Buffalo, New York |chapter=Economic Power |pages=25–39 |last=Dillaway |first=Diana |date=2006 |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |isbn=978-1591024002 |location=Amherst, N.Y.}}</ref><ref name="Rundell1962 149-172" /> Examples include the acquisition of Lackawanna Steel by [[Bethlehem Steel]] and, later, the relocation of [[Curtiss-Wright]] in the 1940s.<ref name="Reitano2016">{{Cite book |last=Reitano |first=Joanne R. |url= |title=New York State: peoples, places, and priorities: a concise history with sources |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-69997-9 |location=New York |chapter=The Stressed State: 1954–75 |pages=223–252 |oclc=918135120 |ref=Reitano2016 |access-date=}}</ref> The [[Great Depression]] saw severe unemployment, especially among the working class. [[New Deal]] relief programs operated in full force, and the city became a stronghold of labor unions and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plesur |first1=Milton |last2=Adler |first2=Selig |last3=Lansky |first3=Lewis |title=An American historian: essays to honor Selig Adler |date=1980 |publisher=[[State University of New York at Buffalo]] |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=204–213 |chapter=Buffalo and the Great Depression, 1929–1933 |oclc=6984440}}</ref>

[[File:Thornberger hoists unloading ore, Lackawanna ore docks, Buffalo, N.Y. LC-D4-32179.jpg|thumb|alt=A black-and-white photograph of iron-ore rail cars at a ship dock|Iron ore unloaded at Buffalo, {{Circa|1900}}]]
During [[World War II]], Buffalo regained its manufacturing strength as military contracts enabled the city to manufacture steel, chemicals, aircraft, trucks and ammunition.<ref name="Reitano2016" /> The [[1950 United States census#City rankings|15th-most-populous US city in 1950]], Buffalo's economy relied almost entirely on manufacturing; eighty percent of area jobs were in the sector.<ref name="Reitano2016" /> The city also had over a dozen railway terminals, as railroads remained a significant industry.<ref name="Rundell1962 149-172">{{cite book |last1=Rundell |first1=Edwin F. |last2=Stein |first2=Charles W. |title=Buffalo: your city |chapter=Buffalo—Center of Commerce and Industry |pages=149–172 |date=1962 |publisher=Henry Stewart, Incorporated |edition=4th |oclc=3023258 |location=[[Buffalo and Erie County Public Library]]}}</ref>

The [[St. Lawrence Seaway]] was proposed in the 19th century as a faster shipping route to Europe, and later as part of a bi-national hydroelectric project with Canada.<ref name="Reitano2016" /> Its combination with an expanded [[Welland Canal]] led to a grim outlook for Buffalo's economy. After its 1959 opening, the city's port and barge canal became largely irrelevant. Shipbuilding in Buffalo wound down in the 1960s due to reduced waterfront activity, ending an industry which had been part of the city's economy since 1812.<ref name="Goldman1983 242-266">{{Cite book |title=High hopes: the rise and decline of Buffalo, New York |chapter=Paranoia: The Fear of Outsiders and Radicals During the 1950s and 1960s |pages=242–266 |last=Goldman |first=Mark |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1983 |isbn=9780873957342 |location=Albany, N.Y. |oclc=09110713}}</ref> Downsizing of the steel mills was attributed to the threat of higher wages and unionization efforts.<ref name="Reitano2016" /> Racial tensions culminated in [[1967 Buffalo riot|riots in 1967]].<ref name="Reitano2016" /> [[Suburbanization]] led to the selection of the town of [[Amherst, New York|Amherst]] for the new [[University at Buffalo]] campus by 1970.<ref name="Reitano2016" /> Unwilling to modernize its plant, Bethlehem Steel began cutting thousands of jobs in Lackawanna during the mid-1970s before closing it in 1983.<ref name="Dillaway2006 25-39" /> The region lost at least 70,000 jobs between 1970 and 1984.<ref name="Dillaway2006 25-39" /> Like much of the [[Rust Belt]], Buffalo has focused on recovering from the effects of late-20th-century [[deindustrialization]].<ref name="Deindustrialization">{{cite journal |last1=Hobor |first1=George |title=Surviving the Era of Deindustrialization: The New Economic Geography of the Urban Rust Belt |journal=Journal of Urban Affairs |date=1 October 2013 |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=417–434 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00625.x |s2cid=154777044}}</ref>
{{wide image|Buffalo waterfront 1880.tif|700px|alt=Aerial view of downtown Buffalo and its waterfront in 1880|Panorama of downtown Buffalo and its waterfront in 1880|align-cap=center}}