When the small glass company from Brooklyn made its way up the Hudson, along the Erie Canal, down Seneca Lake, and on the Chemung Canal to the small town of Corning in 1868, no one could have known the company would one day become a world leader in glass science and technology.

The original plan to get glass into every household was to make special colored glass blinds. You’ve probably never heard of them. That’s because they never really caught on. But, as is often true when it comes to innovation, the folks in Corning were only getting started.

Surprisingly, perhaps, all glass is not the same and Corning has long had the ability to create spectacular glass. That’s why, at one time, there were 20 glass cutting shops in town including renowned engravers like John Hoare and TG Hawkes which helped transform this former lumber town into America’s Crystal City.

But it wasn’t until Corning Flint Glass made signal lamps for the expanding railroad industry in 1877 and the special heat-resistant glass containers for Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamps a few years later that the company recognized a very important innovation.

“Corning’s early efforts to produce bulbs for Edison represented a crucial breakthrough, something it would achieve time and again throughout the next century. The works had come up with a new application for glass as an indispensable, though frequently overlooked, industrial material.” — Dyer and Davis, The Generations of Corning

Since then, that small glass company morphed into Corning Incorporated and has been involved with innovations like Pyrex and CorningWare, glass for telescopes and space shuttle windows, as well as the invention of such technological breakthroughs as fiber optics and Gorilla Glass which impact our lives every day.

With a historic downtown named after master glassblowers where you’ll find over 100 boutiques, studios, galleries, and gaining a reputation as a culinary destination, Corning’s small town charm resonates with visitors from around the world.

Add in the magnificent spectacle that is The Corning Museum of Glass, the world’s largest museum devoted to the history, science and art of glass, and Corning continues to love up to its moniker as “America’s Crystal City.”

With a special Crystal City Exhibit and Innovation Center, you can learn about the many wonders of glass created in the small town which is still home to the glass company’s worldwide headquarters.

Here’s what some others have had to say:

“Located on the Chemung River in upstate New York’s stunning Finger Lakes region, the city of Corning sprung up around the glass industry in the late 19th century. . . . While glassworking is a mainstay of the city’s tourism, its restaurants, museums, wine and spirits scene—and incredible residents doing incredible things—are the real draw.” – Maria Carter, Country Living

In 2018, Popular Science put together their “annual list of the year’s most pivotal, influential, and just plain awesome innovations” calling Gorilla Glass 6 by Corning “The toughest glass for your phone screen” and naming it as one of “The 100 greatest inventions of 2018.”

To learn more about America’s Crystal City and the culture of glass found here, visit “Goodbye Brooklyn” and “America’s Mecca for Glass” on ExploreSteuben.com.