Buffalo Harbor, circa 1870

Courtesy Western New York Heritage Institute Collection

This important view of Buffalo, published in Harper’s Weekly, focuses on the terminus of the Erie Canal. The “Sail Loft” building marks the juncture of the Commercial Slip and the lake traffic of the Buffalo River. There are nine “rafted” canal boats in the river near the large wooden grain elevator. A passenger steamboat is docked at the Central Wharf to the right of the Commercial Slip.