New York State’s State Road Before It Was A Road

Where did our roads come from? How did they get there? Most importantly, why did they get there? Click the link below to find out on this week’s episode of The State of Greater Western New York Report and learn about the Great Genesee Road – Routes 5 & 20.

You may think our major highways appeared randomly through the good graces of the New York State Department of Transportation (with an assist from the many community Highway Departments they traverse through). But you’d be wrong. There was no central planning. But their formation wasn’t random, either. What was that forged and maintained these thoroughfares we take for granted today?

In this special edition of The State of Greater Western New York Report we replay the talk Host Chris Carosa presented to the Honeoye Falls/Mendon Historical Society on Thursday, October 6, 2022. Carosa explains the geological, climatological, and anthropological forces that led to what became the major east-west routes that traverse the Greater Western New York Region.  The bulk of the talk focuses on the historical role of “The Great Central Trail” (a.k.a., “The Genesee Trail”) that sliced through the heart of the Iroquois Confederacy and eventually became Routes 5&20.

Our guest happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a live audience member so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.

Theme music by “mansardian” courtesy of FreeSound.org under Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/