2011 Historic District (girls trip)

2011 Historic District (girls trip)

Words of the Day:
aqueduct (L aqua water + ductus leading). Rochester had at four canals at one point, some of which had to cross overthe Genesee River using aqueducts.synonym (Gk syn- same + onyma name). A word that means the same as another word.

Trip:

After the lesson at the Club we geared up and headed south down Genesee Street to the parking lot of the Staybridge Suites at Brooks Landing. The main theme was the development of the waterways for transportation of goods–the Genesee River itself was the backbone for the development of Rochester’s early industry, which lead to the complimentary development of canal “highways” to support and expand commerce: the Erie Canal, the Genesee Valley Canal and the Feeder Canal. (The Gensee Valley and the Erie intersected just north of where Nick Tahou’s stands today.) We followed the footprint of the Genesee Valley Canal along the west side of the river. When the canal was supplanted by the Genesee Valley Railroad it brought Pennsylvania crude oil to the Vacuum Oil Refinery along Exchange Street.  We rode to that site, which is along side the Civil War-era Camp Fitz-John Porter.   Crude oil from decomposing vegetable matter mixed with impurities settled out into layers. Water mixed with gasoline (which was simply waste material washed into the river before the advent of the internal combustion engine) was the heaviest at the bottom, with lamp fuel naphtha above, and petroleum jelly on top. Remnants of the naptha were also used for motor oil (again, when engines were invented). And isopropyl alcohol was another later product of the refinery.

We stopped at the Erie-Lackawanna train bridge by the University of Rochester campus for a break on the way back. The bridge is planned to be renovated for pedestrian traffic in the near future; a great connection between the 19th Ward and the U of R community.
[Trip Description to be updated]

This trip was on June 23, 2011
Trip distance: 5.5 miles
Programming time: 3 hours
Participants: Jenna Cook, Bre’asia Gibson, Rayauna Goodman, Chaunny Joyner, Sabri Smith
Leaders: Shawn Brown, Tianna Brown, Sara Morrison

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