n.
City (pop., 2001: 147,306), central New York, U.S. The site, at the southern end of Lake Oneida, was once the territory of the Onondaga Indians and the headquarters of the Iroquois Confederacy .
The area was visited by the French in the 17th century. Indian hostility and the swampy location precluded settlement until the establishment of a trading post in 1786. Soon a saltworks based on its brine springs began operation; it supplied most of the nation's salt until 1870. An important port on the Erie Canal , Syracuse serves as a distribution centre for the central New York agricultural region. It also manufactures pharmaceuticals and electronics. It is the site of Syracuse University (1870) and the Everson Museum of Art (founded 1896).