See the past and future collide in photographs of the Belt Line, one of the most conspicuous, least known features of Buffalo. Each day, trains go by along it and people drive underneath and over it. It is the New York Central Belt Line, the "third strand" in Buffalo's DNA, as important to the city's physical and economic geography as Ellicott's radial and grid plan and Olmsted's park and parkway system; as consequential to the city's development as the Erie Canal and Interstate Highway System.

The Belt Line was opened in 1883, with segments dating back to 1836. The rail line is 15 miles long, forming a continuous loop through Buffalo’s downtown as well as the prominent industrial loft clusters that it helped to create. It was established as both a freight and commuter rail route, with 19 commuter stations that connected neighborhoods such as the Hydraulics, Broadway/Fillmore, Parkside, North Park, Black Rock, and the West Side.

To the industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Belt Line was an elite address. To locate a factory on the Belt Line was the equivalent of locating a mansion on Lincoln Parkway, department store on Main Street, or civic building on Niagara Square. The Belt Line was a powerful brand, a place where consequential people made consequential things. Pierce Arrow, Ford, F.N. Burt, Larkin, Curtiss, American Radiator, and others along the Belt Line helped make America.

Commuter service on the Belt Line continued until the end of World War I. While freight service continued, the Belt Line's influence on the city's development declined—that is, until recently. Today, the Belt Line's 12 million square feet of largely vacant or underutilized industrial space is the city's next frontier for sustainable development. Factory buildings—from the Larkin District to Northland Avenue and here at Upper Rock—are being recycled as mixed-use developments. These former industrial areas are becoming walkable centers again.

This rapidly changing frontier is the subject of this show. Photographers Brendan Bannon, Max Collins, Molly Jarboe, Christina Laing, and David Torke turn their lenses toward and along the Belt Line, revealing a hide-in-plain-sight secret to new eyes. Here, where the past and future collide, some of Buffalo's most talented chroniclers capture a moment of transition.