Syracuse is a city in central New York in the US state of New
York. After Buffalo and Rochester, Syracuse is the third largest
city in upstate New York, that is north of the
New York City metropolitan area.
The city, located on Onondaga Lake, offers few classic
sights, but at least the best zoo in Upstate New York, some nice
and interesting museums, charming architectural monuments,
attractive theaters and the largest shopping mall in the entire
state of New York.
By plane
Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR, 1000 Col
Eileen Collins Blvd) is 10 minutes north of Syracuse, just outside the
city limits. This medium-sized airport owes its pompous suffix
"International" to the fact that there are daily flights from Toronto.
Those flying in from Europe typically have to land in Boston, Detroit,
New York, Newark, Philadelphia or Washington.
There is no bus
connection to the airport. Those who arrive here can either have their
loved ones pick them up, take a taxi or rent a car.
If you can't
find a cheap flight to Syracuse, you can also try Rome, Ithaca,
Rochester, Binghamton or Elmira.
By train
Along with
Rochester, Rome and Utica, Syracuse is one of the few cities in the
region that has a train station and is served by Amtrak trains: the
William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center (1 Walsh Circle).
The Amtrak line that runs here is called the Empire Service and runs
from New York City to Niagara Falls via Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and
Buffalo, among others.
By bus
The William F. Walsh Regional
Transportation Center (1 Walsh Circle) is not only a train station, but
also a departure point for Trailways buses (formerly Greyhound).
Syracuse is a hub for multiple lines. Direct connections lead to:
Rochester, Batavia, Buffalo and Niagara Falls
Pulaski, Evans
Mills, De Kalb Jct, Canton, Clarkson, Potsdam, Massena
Utica,
Amsterdam, Schenectady, Albany
New York City (non-stop!)
binghamton
Cortland, Dryden, Ithaca, Elmira
Bus travel is
particularly worthwhile for solo travelers. Couples and families usually
travel more cheaply by (rental) car.
In the street
Syracuse
sits on two major highways:
I-90 ("New York State Thruway"), which
leads to Cleveland via Buffalo, and to Boston via Albany and Springfield
I-81, which goes through Watertown into Canada towards Ottawa, and
through Binghamton and Harrisburg almost to Knoxville, Tennessee
Those coming from New York City will reach their destination fastest (=
in just over 4 hours) if they drive via Scranton and Binghamton. Driving
on this route is also much more relaxed than on the busy route via
Albany.
Driving in Syracuse is relatively easy, as long as you don't get lost
on the freeways. Parking in the center is usually subject to a fee;
Finding a free seat is hardly a problem.
Downtown is small and
easy to get around on foot.
The regional transport company Centro
operates a dense network of bus routes in the city (network map). When
boarding, have $2 (senior citizens and children aged 6–9 years $1; as of
summer 2015) ready. Presale collective tickets make driving slightly
cheaper.
Centro also offers cheap bus service to other cities in
Central New York.
1 Erie Canal Museum, 318 Erie Boulevard East, Downtown. The Erie
Canal Museum, the water link between the Hudson River and Lake Erie,
completed in 1825. The canal made it possible to transport goods by boat
between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic for the first time, and was
responsible for the economic boom in upstate New York in the 19th
century, even before the arrival of the railroad Falling into the Rust
Belt in 1970 with the decline of regional integrated industry. Anyone
interested in the subject will find a number of other relevant museums
around the canal, e.g. B. the Eric Canal Village in Rome. Open: Mon -
Sat 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Closed on high holidays.
Price: Admission $5.
2 Museum of Science & Technology (MOST), 500 S
Franklin St, Downtown. Museum of Nature and Technology for families with
pre-teen children.
3 Everson Museum of Art, 401 Harrison St,
Downtown. Art museum with important collections of American painting,
sculpture, ceramics and video art. The ceramics collection is one of the
largest in the country and includes works from antiquity to the present
day; the video collection is even the oldest and largest in the world.
Open: Sun, Wed, Fri 12 noon – 5 p.m., Sat 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thurs 12
noon – 8 p.m. Price: Admission $5.
Clinton Square, corner of Erie Blvd & Clinton St. Downtown's central
plaza features a large water basin that becomes a skating rink in winter
(it was home to the Erie Canal until 1925) and views of some of the
city's most interesting structures:infoedit
Syracuse Savings Bank
Building, 101 S Salina St. Built in 1875 by a 26-year-old architect in a
Gothic Revival style, it was the tallest building in the city at the
time. (en:wikipedia).infoedit
Gridley Building, 101 S Salina St.
Constructed in 1869 as a bank building. (en:wikipedia).infoedit
Onondaga County Savings Bank, 113 S Salina St. Built in 1896.
(en:wikipedia).infoedit
Two blocks west is the spectacular Niagara
Mohawk Building (300 Erie Boulevard West), built in 1932 in Art Deco
style. (en:wikipedia)
Two blocks east of Clinton Square, on the
other hand, is the slightly less photogenic City Hall (233 E. Washington
St), built in 1889-1892 in the Romanesque Revival style. (en:wikipedia).
Rosamond Gifford Zoo, 1 Conservation Place. Located in Burnet Park, 10 minutes west of downtown, is Upstate's must-see zoo, opened in 1914 and covering 45 acres. Most of the 700 animals – birds, fish and reptiles excluded – will be kept in spacious and nature-like outdoor enclosures, including Asian elephants, buffalo, bats, Humboldt penguins, gray and red wolves, Amur tigers, African lions and strange creatures such as lemurs, Meerkat and Fossa. Open: Daily 10am - 4.30pm (except Thanksgiving, December 25th and January 1st). Price: Admission $8 (children 3-18 $4, seniors $5; half price in January and February).
Syracuse Opera. Upstate New York's only opera company operating year-round. Three productions per season, including musicals. Performances are held at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater (421 Montgomery St) and at the Carrier Theater at the John H. Mulroy Civic Center (800 S State St). Those arriving in July or August who miss out on the season will find plenty of compensation (if they book tickets in advance) at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, 1½ hours away. Price: Tickets $40-270.
Destiny USA, 9090 Destiny USA Dr, Syracuse. Right at the southeast
end of Onondaga Lake is the largest mall in New York State. More than
200 shops, boutiques, department stores, fast food restaurants, etc. on
3 floors (overview). Anchor stores are Best Buy, Forever 21, The
Bon-Ton, H&M, Macy's, Kaufmann's and Lord & Taylor. Food court with a
historic horse carousel. Open: Mon - Sat 10 a.m. - 9.30 p.m., Sun 11
a.m. - 6 p.m.
1 Central New York Regional Market, 2100 Park Street.
Large market where more than 400 vendors sell locally produced (fresh)
goods. Open: Daily.
The gourmet supermarket chain in Syracuse that
most appeals to European tastes is Wegmans. 5 branches (e.g. 3325 West
Genesee Street and 4256 James Street).
2 Trader Joe's, 3422 Erie Blvd
E, 10 minutes east of downtown. One of the unfortunately rare branches
of the cheap gourmet organic supermarket chain in the American East is
located near the interchange 481&690. For the next ones you have to
drive to Rochester or Albany.
3 Smith Interiors, 3184 Erie Blvd East,
across from Kravec Dr, East Syracuse. American tastes are quite
conservative when it comes to interior design and furniture design. It
is no coincidence that the great modernizer Frank Lloyd Wright failed
here. Market-dominating chains like Raymour&Flanigan still offer country
style and massive classics in the 21st century. Smith Interiors is one
of the few upstate New York suppliers specializing in European
(Scandinavian, Italian) imported furniture with a contemporary design.
If you don't find what you're looking for here either, you have to
continue to Ithaca or Rochester.
In the area of today's Syracuse, French missionaries settled after
the native Indians from the 17th century. After the Revolutionary War,
more white people came to the region, mostly to trade with the Onondaga
tribe. After commercial salt production began in some of Syracuse's salt
marshes, more settlers were drawn to the region. The salt gave the city
the nickname "Salt City".
The original settlement has been
renamed several times. Originally it was called Salt Point (1780), then
Webster's Landing (1786), Bogardus Corners (1796), Milan (1809), South
Salina (1812), Cossits' Corners (1814) and Corinth (1817). However, when
Corinth applied for the establishment of a post office, the postal
administration rejected this name because a post office of that name
already existed in New York State. Eventually the name Syracuse was
chosen and the village officially incorporated in 1825. In the same
year, the Erie Canal was opened, which ran through what was then the
village. Syracuse became a city in 1839 with the incorporation of the
nearby village of Salina.
In addition to the thriving salt
industry, Syracuse also became a key focal point for the growing
anti-slavery movement. On October 1, 1851, a freed slave known only by
the name "Jerry" was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law. When news of
this former slave's arrest broke, hundreds of anti-slavery activists
stormed the city jail and freed Jerry. During the American Civil War,
Syracuse was also a "stop" on the "Underground Railroad", the main
escape route for slaves from the southern states.
The economic
importance of the salt industry declined after the American Civil War,
but a new manufacturing industry emerged in its place. In the late 19th
century and early 20th century, numerous industrial products were
manufactured, such as air-cooled engines by the H.H. Franklin
Manufacturing Company. In 1920 Syracuse reached a population of more
than 210,000 inhabitants.
The population declined again after
World War II as more residents moved to the suburbs. Many of Syracuse's
historic buildings fell into disrepair and demolition in the 1950s and
1960s. As a result, some new museums and authorities with new government
buildings settled in the city in order to revitalize the center.
Sponsored by foundation programs, many immigrants from Africa and
Central America moved to Syracuse in the 1980s.
Syracuse's
industrial productivity slumped again in the 1990s. Many small
businesses had to close during this time, which contributed to a further
increase in the already increasing unemployment rate. Another major
setback in 2003 was Carrier Corporation's announcement that it would
close its Syracuse manufacturing facility the following year.
Syracuse has been the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse since 1886. The main church of the diocese is the Cathedral Immaculate Conception (Immaculate Conception) from 1874, which was consecrated a second time after modifications and additions (tower) in 1910 as a cathedral. The Sacred Heart Basilica dates from 1910.
Economy and Infrastructure
Chemicals, aircraft engines, machines, electronic devices and metal goods are mainly manufactured in Syracuse. The armaments company Lockheed Martin is one of the largest employers in the city. Since 2004, Cintas has had a production and cleaning facility for uniforms in Syracuse.
Syracuse International Airport is four miles northeast of the city.
Amtrak trains run to Toronto and New York.
Syracuse has a major university, Syracuse University, a campus of the State University of New York, and an art museum.
Leisure time
To the west of the city is Burnet Park, which houses
the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, among other things.
buildings
Syracuse is home to the historic Babcock-Shattuck House.
In the
district of Tipperary Hill there is a traffic light with the lights in
reverse order (green at the top, red at the bottom). When the first
traffic lights were installed in 1920, young people, concerned that the
'British' red was higher than the 'Irish' green, threw stones at the
lights. After the traffic light was repaired, it was destroyed again and
again, so the city, feeling the need for a traffic light at this point,
decided to reverse the traffic light. The traffic light still exists in
this reverse order.
Local hockey club Syracuse Crunch plays in the AHL and has been the Tampa Bay Lightning's farm team since the 2012-13 season. The Syracuse Mets baseball team plays at NBT Bank Stadium and is a farm team of the New York Mets in the International League. The Syracuse University Lacrosse team is the most successful team in the NCAA with eleven championships.