Rochester
Flour City (1825) became Kodak's 60,000-worker empire became 150-company optics cluster after bankruptcy. Half of US optics degrees awarded here. DNA survives the organism.
Rochester exists because a river falls three times. In 1803, Nathaniel Rochester bought 100 acres along the Genesee River, drawn by three cataracts that promised waterpower. By the time the Erie Canal crossed the river in 1825, mills were grinding 25,000 bushels of wheat daily. Rochester shipped 40,000 barrels of flour east in the canal's first ten days. They called it the 'Flour City,' the 'Young Lion of the West.'
Flour faded as farming moved to the Great Plains, but the talent for precision manufacturing remained. In 1853, two German immigrants founded Bausch & Lomb to make eyeglasses. George Eastman chose Rochester for Kodak in 1888. Xerox followed. At its peak, Kodak alone employed over 60,000 people—creating a concentration of optical engineering talent unmatched anywhere in the world. Bausch & Lomb and Kodak founded the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics in 1929 to ensure a steady pipeline of trained engineers.
Kodak's collapse was epic. Digital photography destroyed the film business; the company declared bankruptcy in 2012. Manufacturing jobs have shrunk continuously since the 1980s. Rochester saw little growth in population or employment for decades.
But the talent stayed. Rochester is now the 'Optics Capital of the World'—home to over 150 companies in photonics, optics, and imaging. The Institute of Optics has awarded more than half of all optics degrees in the United States. Rochester's engineers helped design optical components for the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the National Ignition Facility. Luminate, a local accelerator, has invested $18.8 million in over 70 photonics startups since 2018. RIT generates $800 million in annual regional impact. The University of Rochester is now the largest employer.
By 2026, Rochester demonstrates a peculiar form of resilience: the flagship corporation collapsed, but its expertise survived. Kodak's 60,000 jobs became 150 optics companies. Optics is 'part of the DNA of Rochester'—and DNA persists even when the organism dies.