High Falls
Any discussion about Rochester history starts here, in the Genesee River Gorge. And the High Falls is as good as any place to start.
Our city wouldn’t be here if the river’s waterfalls hadn’t provided an excellent source of power to operate the mills that produced the wood to build a settlement, and then the flour mills that helped it become America’s first boom town.
When you stand on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge, admire the mighty cataract, but then look to the right, at the west face of the gorge where you will see some of the historic old mill buildings still standing.
Water diverted from the river into Brown’s Race, a man-made waterway, provided the power for these buildings.
Two other races were constructed even earlier, farther upstream. One race ran along the east bank at what is now the Rundel Library building, the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, Radisson Hotel and Water Street, going north to the High Falls.
On the west side, another race ran beneath what is now the Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial, going north to Main street.
“These three races channeled river water into narrow streams that ran north roughly level with and parallel to the surface of the river above the falls and then poured over and turned large-diameter water-wheels, providing power for the city’s mills, before plunging back to the river below the falls in cuts called tail races,” Thomas Grasso explains in a Rochester History article.
So as you stand on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge, look even more closely at the west face of the gorge, and you will seek dark vertical slits. These were the tail races.
When the Erie Canal was completed as far as Rochester in 1825, all the ingredients were in place.
Flour produced in Rochester’s river-powered mills could now be shipped along the canal to markets east and west. And not just flour, but furniture, farm machinery, beer, barrels, canal boats and even fire engines were produced by Rochester’s many water-powered mills, Grasso notes.
Thanks Kris and Rachel B
