East of Buffalo,_New_York and northwest of
Syracuse,_New_York on the southern shore of
Lake Ontario in western New York State, Rochester
straddles the Genessee River as is flows northward,
draining into Lake Ontario.
The city is sometimes known as the Flour City, based on its
early industrial history as a site for grain mills, located
along waterfalls on the Genesee in what is now the Brown's Race
area of downtown Rochester.
Rochester is home to a number of colleges and universities,
including the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester, and
Saint John Fisher College. The city is also host to a number
of international businesses, including Eastman Kodak, which
makes Rochester its world headquarters, as well as Xerox and
Bausch_&_Lomb.
South of Rochester sits New York's Southern Tier, including the
scenic Letchworth Park with it's spectacular riverine canyon,
and the glacially-formed Finger Lakes.
Irondequoit Bay bounds, roughly, the eastern edge of
Rochester.
Surrounding communities include Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield,
Henrietta, Gates, Chili, East Rochester . . .