New York outstripped by Florida

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I recall reading once that Buffalo was the eight largest city in the US at one point.  

As Ernest pointed out in the other thread, it was more about commercial bottlenecks that New York City and by extention New York State became the largest. The state has been described as an L with New York City on one end and Buffalo at the other. I would guess 90% of the population of the state lives along that L, which contains throughout history the Mohawk Trail, The Erie Canal and the New York Central's water level route, over which most of the Great Lakes and even Midwestern Commerce was redirected towards New York City as the primary port outlet, which was previously New Orleans.

New York's Port facility is small and dated in comparison to others and of course you have the St. Lawrence Seaway siphoning off the Great Lakes and finally, the decline of the rust belt all taking a bite out of New York's pie.