Black Rock

Black Rock, once an independent municipality, is now a neighborhood of the northwest section of the city of Buffalo, New York. In the 1820s, Black Rock was the rival of Buffalo for the terminus of the Erie Canal, but Buffalo, with its larger harbor capacity and greater distance from the shores of Canada, a recent antagonist during the War of 1812, won the competition. Black Rock took its name from a large outcropping of black limestone along the Niagara River, which was blasted away in the early 1820s to make way for the canal.

In spite of losing the Erie Canal terminus to Buffalo and twice being burned to the ground by the British during the War of 1812, Black Rock continued to prosper. In 1814, a small group of American riflemen defended Black Rock and neighboring Buffalo from a British assault and, in 1839, it was incorporated as a town. In 1853, the City of Buffalo annexed the town of Black Rock.

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