Syracuse sits in Central New York on Onondaga Lake, a city built on salt, canals, and snow. The Erie Canal Museum, housed in the last remaining weighlock building on the canal, tells how the waterway turned a salt town into a crossroads, and Clinton Square marks the canal's original downtown route. Syracuse University brings students, sports, and research to the hill above town, and Armory Square fills old warehouses with restaurants and shops. The city earned the name Salt City for the salt springs that once drove its industry, and its snowy winters are a point of local pride.