This portage continued to be strategically important to Europeans, who also used the main 18th and 19th-century waterways, based on the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, that connected New York City and the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes.

The original European settlements developed around fortifications erected in the 1750s to defend the waterway, in particular the British Fort Stanwix (1763) built in New York.

Following the American Revolution, the settlement began to grow with the construction of the Rome Canal in 1796, to connect Wood Creek (leading from Lake Ontario) and the headwaters of the Mohawk River.

For a time, the small community next to the canal was informally known as Lynchville, after the original owner of the property, the prominent wine merchant Dominick Lynch.

Now located within the modern Rome city limits, this short portage path was the only overland section of a water trade route stretching more than 1,000 miles between Lake Ontario and the lower Hudson.

Travelers and traders coming up the Mohawk River from the Hudson had to transfer their cargo and boats and transport them overland between 1.7 and six miles (depending on the season) to continue west on Wood Creek to Oneida Lake which was drained by the Oswego River that ultimately flowed into Lake Ontario.

The British colonists had erected several small forts to guard the Oneida Carrying Place and the lucrative fur trade against French incursions from Canada; however, a combined French regular army, Canadian, and allied Native American force overwhelmed and massacred a British force here in the Battle of Fort Bull.

Later in 1758, after several abortive attempts to fortify the area, the British sent a very large force to secure the Oneida Carry and build a stronger rampart complex, which they named Fort Stanwix.

[citation needed] Following their defeat by Britain during the war, the French ceded their territory in North America east of the Mississippi River to the British.

The British signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 with the Iroquois, under the terms of which they promised to preserve areas west of the Appalachian Mountains as an Indian reserve and to prohibit American colonial settlement.

[9] The British were unable to enforce their promise, as American colonists continued to move west of the Appalachians, causing conflicts with native tribes.

Patriot militia, regulars, and their Oneida Nation allies under the command of Col. Peter Gansevoort, successfully repelled a prolonged siege in August 1777 by British, German, Loyalist, and Canadian troops and warriors from several Native American nations, all commanded by British Gen. Barry St. Leger.

After the repulsion of the British at Fort Stanwix, bloody fighting erupted along the American northern frontier and throughout the Mohawk Valley.

There were heavy losses for both American settlers and the people of the Six Nations, as each side made retaliatory raids against the other in a round of violence.

Because many of the Oneida were fighting with the rebels and against the four nations allied with the British, especially the Mohawk and Seneca, the Iroquois had members attacking each other, which they had avoided doing earlier in this century.

The Americans used Fort Stanwix as the primary staging point for attacks against British loyalist units and their Haudenosaunee allies.

Commander George Washington ordered the campaign in retaliation for the fierce frontier attacks in New York, such as the Cherry Valley Massacre by Loyalist irregulars led by Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant and John Butler.

The Sullivan campaign destroyed nearly 50 Iroquois villages and their food stores, leading to starvation of many people of these nations during the following winter.

It provides audio-visual programs to orient visitors, as well as secure storage space for the museum's collection of artifacts and related historic materials.

It resulted in an increase in trade and traffic between communities around the Great Lakes and New York City, stimulating development all along the route.

Critics particularly praised performances by George Clinton, Jamiroquai, James Brown, Sheryl Crow, and Rage Against the Machine.

[citation needed] On July 16, 2024, a high-end EF2 tornado struck Rome, causing widespread power outages and property damage.

[20] The tornado touched down just north of the Erie Canal, passed through the center of Rome, and lifted up on the far side of Griffiss Air Force Base.

New York State Route 365 passes through the eastern portion of the outer district before becoming part of the Utica-Rome Expressway at an interchange.

[26] Rome averages over 120 inches (3,000 mm) of snowfall each winter, mostly due to its proximity to Lake Ontario and the lake-effect snow that it produces.

Like other cities in the region, Rome has numerous Italian-Americans, who maintain a concentration in the Little Italy in the vicinity of East Dominick Street.

[37] Between 1964 and 1988, the Rome Knights and later the Copper City Chiefs played their home games on Saturday evenings at the Kennedy Arena.

The Chiefs were a semi-professional ice hockey club that competed against Senior and Intermediate level teams from the province of Ontario, Canada; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; New England, and cities from the State of New York.

In 2006 it piloted an early Cyber Security course for students in collaboration with the Air Force and Syracuse University which was subsequently rolled out to other New York State High Schools.