Tonawanda is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,129 at the 2020 census. It is at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal from North Tonawanda, east of Grand Island, and north of Buffalo. It is part of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area.
The North Tonawanda side of the Gateway Harbor
Image: Kibler High Nov 2008
Image: Tonawanda Armory Nov 2008
Image: Tonawanda Post Office Nov 2008
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing the costs of transporting people and goods across the Appalachians. In effect, the canal accelerated the settlement of the Great Lakes region, the westward expansion of the United States, and the economic ascendancy of New York State. It has been called "The Nation's First Superhighway."
Tugboat at Lock E33 in Rochester
The Mohawk Valley, running east and west, cuts a natural path between the Catskill Mountains to the south and the Adirondack Mountains to the north.
Governor DeWitt Clinton, champion of the canal
Profile of the original canal