Right now, we are at buffalos waterfront. We are recreating as part of the Governors Division governors vision. We want to revitalize the waterfront. It is a river and lake erie. Lake erie is one of the five great lakes. Abouteat lakes comprise 84 of north americas freshwater. The fact that we are right here, on a great lake, is something very significant to us. With our vision being to revitalize the waterfront, we now have looked at this 21 acre parcel on the waters edge and thought, how do we recreate it . Where we are now is in a position to recreate with the waterfront look like at a point in time. We have a master plan that was put together that tries to recreate some of the feel of what it would have been like to live back then, without taking it to the historic extreme. Rie canal was started in 1817 and completed in 1825. It was called clintons ditch. It was not thought to be that productive. In the end, it turned out to be quite the success story. Materials anding the transportation of materials, side ofeople, from one the state to the other was quite transformational. While it was only 40 foot wide theone foot deep, it served purpose of getting materials from one side of the state to the other and really was an incredible, technical marvel. Canal was completed, it transformed buffalo into a major destination. This is a place where people wanted to be. At the western terminus, you can embark on a journey to get from one side of the state to the other, or to get to the great lakes. When we did the reconstruction, we laid it out exactly the way the theory canal came into this the erie canal came into this zone. You can stand there and say this is where the the boats would come and take it down the path. We all have also have immigrant steps that we created. There are some any people who and set offteps from there to other parts of the country guest. It was also written that in a 10 year period, there were so many who emigrated across the country, it was equal to the size of the population that came to ellis island. It really put buffalo on the map and made things different in terms of buffalo becoming a major city. On a map you will see building, building, building. They are put together like rowhouses. There was so much activity because of all of these ships coming in. A lot of transients coming to town, needing a place to eat, and a place to drink in the early 1800s. Built,e erie canal was from a buffalonian standpoint, we had a lot of grain. The freighters what come up and down would come up and down the waterways, and i think we have 16 Grain Elevators in buffalo. They are massive, primarily concrete structures. We have 16 remaining Grain Elevators and their fantastic, architectural structures. Grain is a big thing on the great lakes and the transportation of that. A lot of the erie canal was great in its heyday. We had a lot of passenger traffic and goods that would flow from one side of the state to the other. What happened was the rail came to play. Moreally offer a lot opportunity for the goods to be transported from one side to the other. I think the erie canal was put together somewhat when the rail came into play and the st. Lawrence seaway offered an alternative route. That closed the door on the erie canal. After that, we use street paths and used it as streets and highways to get traffic from one side of the city to the other. What we have done today is recreate a portion of the erie canal, go back and build off the history, use the historic lines of what was here on this site and tie it into the western terminus which is done in an is stored fashion, in terms of the way the western terminus exited into the lake. After the recreation of the erie canal, citizens can come down to this site and have a taste of history and get a feel. And the significance of the erie canal. History plays a really important part. One of the things i would say is ians, we areia not proud enough of our past. If we can remind the next generations how great buffalo was, and have a great it can become, we control and more of our history. We think about our grandparents , they allgrandparents came over from different countries. This was a melting pot that came to buffalo. That is how buffalo became such a great neighborhood. It was heavily influenced with italian, irish, and so everybody grew up and know something about what their greatgrandfather or great grandmother did. What happened way back when. If we can tie and and say that this is a bridge this is what the bridge look like back in 1825, i think it is more important to have a sense of