DESCRIPTION. The city occupies an area of 42 square miles. It is situated on ground rising gradually from the lake to an extended plain at an elevation of 50 feet (altitude 600 feet above sea-level). The streets generally are broad and cross each other at right angles, are beautifully shaded and well paved, considerably more than half (356 miles) of the total street mileage being paved, and about two-thirds of this dis tance (233 miles) with asphalt. Main Street, the principal business thoroughfare, runs north erly front the lake-front. Near Lafayette Square, Niagara Street, the main road to Tonawanda, Marts from Main Street on a diagonal line. This is the centre of the business district. Here are the large office buildings. including many tall, steel-framed structures. The residential see lions of Buffalo are marked by the large pro portion of detached houses owned by the oven pants. In the fashionable district the principal avenues are Delaware Avenue and North Street; here the houses arc surrounded by ample lawns and trees and shrubs, which give this section of the city the picturesque appearance of a suburb. The same features of domestic architecture are carried out in the newly developed sections of the North Side. Many handsome buildings adorn the city; among these mention may he made of the new United States Government Building, which cost about $2,000„000; the city and county hall, of granite, with a tower 245 feet high; the State Armory and Arsenal; Music Hall; Merchants' Exchange; Masonic Temple: Y. M. C. A. Building; Fitch Institute; General Hospital; State Insane Asylum the Erie County Penitentiary; B11 IT:110 Libra ry ; Grosvenor Li brary; the Roman Catholic and Protestant Epis copal cathedrals; Board of Trade Building; the Erie County Savings Bank; Buffalo Savings Bank; Mutual Life and Prudential buildings; the D. S. Morgan Building; and Ellicott Square,
the last named covering an entire block, and said to be the largest office Imilding in the world.
The Buffalo street railways were among the first. to adopt electric traction and the system of free transfers. Numerous lines, the entire system covering 185 miles, furnish transit to all sec tions of the city. and also to neighboring towns. An abundant water-supply is derived from the lake, and the sewerage system. comprising 416 miles of mains (140 paved with brick and 276 with tile), not only covers the whole city, but has a large outfall sewer discharging into the swift current of Niagara River.
The park system of Buffalo includes over 1000 acres, and consists of a chain of parks and park ways nearly encircling the city. The principal plots arc the Front, of 45 acres, where the waters of the lake form themselves into the Ni agara, and north of which is Fort Porter, a small military post: the Delaware Park, of 365 'acres, adjoining which are the State Insane Hospital grounds, of 200 acres, and Forest Lawn Cemetery, of 230 acres; Humboldt Park, includ ing about 56 acres, and three large parks in the south; Stony Point, on the lake shore; South Park; and Cazenovia Park. Besides these, and the connecting park boulevards and circles, there arc minor spaces scattered about the town aggre gating about 60 acres. The principal public monuments are the Soldiers and Sailors', in Lafayette Square, and those to Red Jacket and President Fillmore. in Forest Lawn Cemetery.