BUFFALO, N. Y., county-seat of Erie county, the 2d largest city in the State and 10th in the United States; situated at the eastern end of Lake Erie and on its outlet, the Niagara River. Its centre is 24 miles south of Niagara Falls, and its important suburbs, the Tonawandas, are half way between. It lies due west 297 miles by rail from Albany and 499 from Boston; northwest 425 miles from New York, and 417 from Philadelphia; about 410 southwest from Montreal, and 540 east of Chicago. It extends about 10 miles along the lake and river front, and half as far east; area, 42 square miles.
Buffalo, which began at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, has spread mainly north and east up to a gradual rase, a plateau some 80 feet above the lake and 620 above sea-level. It is laid out in wide, rectangular streets, beautifully shaded and decorated with shrubbery more completely than any other at in the world. No less than 260 miles of its 600 miles of streets are asphalted. 84 are stone-paved, 37 are brick-paved and 16 are macadamized. The chief business streets are Main, running north and northeast from the harbor to the city limits; Delaware avenue, parallel with it; Niagara, north and northwest along the river front to Tonawanda; and Broadway. which with Genesee, Sycamore and Seneca, widen spoke-like from the heart of the business district around Lafayette and Niagara squares. Each of these is several miles long. The finest residence streets are Delaware avenue and North street. The latter crosses the former at right angles a mile north of the centre; they are set with large separate man sions, having great lawns, gardens and shrub beries, a fashion followed in the new residence streets to the north.
Municipal Service and Improvements.— The street cleaning and sprinkling services, under municipal control, cost $475,573 in 1015. The sanitary service, embracing ash and garbage removal, also done by the city, in the same period cost $310,589. Both these depart ments are notably efficient. The sewage, col lected through 544 miles of mains, is emptied into the Niagara River and carried swiftly away. The first public bath house erected in New York State under the law of 1895 was opened here in 1897. All these things, with the
cool and healthful summer climate which at tracts many visitors, enable Buffalo to claim the distinction of being the cleanest and healthiest city in the United States. The death rate in 1915 was 13.98, inclusive of residents and visitors. Exclusive of non-residents, it was 13.83. The waterworks built in 1888 in 1915 were augmented by the opening of a large pumping station, erected at a cost of nearly $7,000,000. They are supplied by water from Emerald channel, the purest source in Lake Erie. The water is conveyed from the intake to the shore station by means of an immense underground tunnel, blasted through solid rock. The reservoirs have a storage capacity of 200,000,000 gallons a day. The average con sumption is about 150,000,000 gallons a day, or 312 gallons per capita per day. Nearly 600 miles of mains distribute the water, and the cost of the water department in 1915 was $1,182,212, including interest on $11,620,383 out standing water bonds. Electric lighting is al most universal in business houses and res idences, the cheap power furnished by Niagara Falls being used. The police department num ber 907 men. There are 14 precincts, a sub station and a headquarters building. A harbor patrol is maintained and the cost of operating the department in 1915 was $1,079,245. The fire department is thoroughly modern, its equip ment consisting largely of motor-driven ap paratus of the latest type. There are two chiefs, 12 battalion chiefs, three fire boats, an up-to-date system of storage and signal boxes, 678 men and the annual cost of operation and maintenance is $1,105,385. An important munic ipal improvement has been the transfer of tele graph, telephone, police and fire alarm wires from overhead poles to conduits. The street railway system was the first in the United States to he equipped for electric power. It covers 250 miles of double tracks, 96 miles of single tracks and 31 miles of extra tracks within the city limits. The lines extend to all suburbs, along the Niagara River to Niagara Falls and across into Canada.