Rochester NY (New York, Lake Ontario)

Rochester is a Genesee River/Lake Ontario cruise port and city in New York USA (Monroe County) with land area approx 36 mi2 / 93 km2. By population (around 210,000) the city is ranked the state's 4th-largest - after NYC, Buffalo, and Yonkers. Rochester Metro (population over 1,07 million) has New York state's 3rd-largest economy - following only NYC and Buffalo-Niagara Falls.

Rochester is approx 75 mi / 120 km northeast of Buffalo (via highways I-490W and I-90W), approx 90 mi / 140 km west of Syracuse (via highway I-90E), approx 230 mi / 360 km west of Albany (NY's capital/via highway I-90E), approx 170 mi / 270 km southeast of Toronto Ontario Canada (via Queen Elizabeth Way) and approx 210 mi / 335 km northwest of New York City (via highway I-81S).

Port Rochester (locode USROC) is on Lake Ontario (in the city's Charlotte neighborhood, at 1000 North River Street) and spreads along Genesee River mouth's western bank. Charlotte (approx 7 mi / 11 km north of Rochester) was established in the early-19th-century as a lake port (Port of Genesee) serving the shipping trade with Canada across the Great Lakes. However, lake cargo shipping from Charlotte started to decline after the opening of the Erie Canal (1825/between Hudson River and Lake Erie) and the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad (1853, became part of New York Central Railroad in 1855).

Port Rochester's Terminal Building houses restaurants, public restrooms, and a large event space (available for rent). The city-owned Port of Rochester Marina (adjacent to the Port) has capacity to handle boats of all types and sizes and provides modern boating amenities and services like fuel and water supply, wastewater, electricity, restrooms and showers, laundry facilities, bar lounge, shop, Wi-Fi Internet. Outdoor activities launched from the Marina include leisure boating, sports fishing, waterfront walking/biking (Genesee Riverway Trail/16 mi / 26 km from Lake Ontario to Genesee Valley Park), Port touring, and visiting and playing in the parks of Ontario Beach and Turning Point.

As one of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario has surface area (7340 mi2/19000 km2), water volume (393 mi3/1640 km3) max depth (804 ft/245 m), largest cities in New York USA (Rochester NY) and Ontario Canada (Hamilton, Kingston, Mississauga, Oshawa, Toronto).

Greater Rochester Airport (approx 3 mi / 5 km southwest of downtown) has one terminal building, two passenger concourses, 22 gates, a 3-level (long-term parking) garage. The airport serves several major passenger airlines (Allegiant Air, American Airlines/Eagle, Delta Air Lines, Delta Connection, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines/Express) linking via regularly scheduled daily flights to Florida (Miami, Tampa, Sanford/Orlando, Punta Gorda), North Carolina (Charlotte), Maryland (Baltimore), Massachusets (Boston), Illinois (Chicago), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Georgia (Atlanta), Virginia (Dulles), Colorado (Denver), Michigan (Detroit), New York (NYC), New Jersey (Newark), Washington DC. Seasonal charter flights link to Florida's Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers Beach (by Southwest Airlines) and South Carolina's Myrtle Beach (by Spirit Airlines). Cargo flights from Rochester NY are operated by FedEx (linking to Elmira NY, Baltimore, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Memphis Tennessee, Indianapolis Indiana), and by DHL (linking to Hebron Kentucky/Cincinnati Ohio).

The settlement (as Rochesterville) was founded in the late-18th-century (1788) and incorporated in 1817 (as village) and 1834 (as city). The town's economy started to develop on agriculture (Genesee River Valley's fertile lands) and later on manufacturing. In the late-19th-century, Charlotte/Rochester developed seasonal resort tourism (during the summer months) with thousands of vacationers arriving on "cruise ships" (steamboats), luxury yachts and also by ferries (passenger and cargo ships) from Toronto Canada. To be able to accommodate the larger ships, the Port started infrastructure and harbor developments, including dredging works for deepening the access channel. Ontario Beach Park (Charlotte's resort area) was established in 1884 and connected to Rochester by electric trolleys in 1889. Charlotte merged with Rochester in 1916.

The city has 36 neighborhoods, a large network of streets (total length 537 mi / 864 km) and waterways (total length 585 mi / 941 km), 52 bridges, 11 libraries. In Rochester NY were established (some are still headquartered) the iconic American companies Western Union (1851/financial services), Bausch+Lomb (1853/health products), Eastman Kodak (1892/photography products), French's (1904/mustard, condiments, food items), Xerox Holdings (1906/print and digital document products, equipment, services), Gannett (1906/newspaper publishing), Wegmans Food Markets (1916/supermarket chain),, Ragu (1937/sauces and condiments producer), Constellation Brands (1945/alcohol producer and marketer), Paychex (1971/business process outsourcing and human capital management).

As one of the "Rust Belt" cities (in the states Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois), in the 1950s Rochester started to experience industrial decline and population loss due to the region's deindustrialization related to its main heavy industries - steelmaking, coal mining, and car manufacturing.

The current-day city's economy is largely based on advanced technologies (research, manufacturing), higher education (Rochester University, Cornell University, Eastman Music School), healthcare (Carestream Health), finances, business and public services, tourism (East End/downtown nightlife, premium bars and restaurants, museums, annual festivals and street fairs, nature parks, large-capacity sports facilities/stadiums - Blue Cross Arena, Frontier Field, Rochester Sports Complex Stadium).