442 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Considerable damage was done to the farms in the flats. Accord- 

 ing to statements made by Hervey Ely, a former citizen of Roch- 

 ester, the flow of the river in the flood of 1835 amounted to about 

 36,000 cubic feet per second. 



In February, 1857, a serious flood occurred in the Genesee river 

 which carried away not only a number of buildings on the north 

 side of the Main street bridge at Rochester, but also undermined 

 the piers of that bridge and even finally swept away the greater 

 part of the old structure. A new bridge was in process of con- 

 struction at the time. 



The great flood of 1865. March, 1865, was a period of general 

 high water throughout western New York. Long continued cold 

 weather and a heavy snowfall were followed by a sudden thaw, 

 accompanied by rain, about the middle of March. On the six- 

 teenth a freshet in the upper Genesee valley was reported, and 

 on the seventeenth the water was very high at Rochester, but 

 aside from the usual alarm manifested on such occasions, the sit- 

 uation was not considered specially serious. The river, however^ 

 continued to rise during the night of March 17th, until the banks 

 of the Genesee valley and the Erie canals were overflowed, with 

 the water pouring direct from the river into the canals. The 

 river further rose above its banks until finally nearly the entire 

 central portion of Rochester was under water. During the whole 

 of the 18th and part of March 19th the only means of transporta- 

 tion throughout the entire business portion of Rochester was by 

 boat. The gas supply was cut off early in the disaster, leaving the 

 city in darkness. The New York Central & Hudson River Rail- 

 road bridge over the river was carried away, and traffic sus- 

 pended on that railway for several days. The damage to property 

 is stated to have exceeded $1,000,0001 



Rochester newspapers of March, 1865, give detailed accounts of 

 the Genesee flood, from which it is gleaned that the damage mus1 

 have been very severe, and may have even considerably exceeded 

 f 1,000,000. 



IThe foregoing details of floods in the Genesee river up to and including 

 1865, have been mostly gleaned from Peck's History of Rochester. The 

 newspapers of the day have also been referred to for particulars of the 

 great flood of 1805. 



