Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 148,620 and its metropolitan area had a population of 662,057. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over one million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex. Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily. Historically, the city has functioned as a major crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90. Its airport is the largest in the Central New York region. Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, SUNY ESF, and Le Moyne College. History French missionaries were the first Europeans to come to this area, arriving to work with and convert the Native Americans in the mid-17th century. At the invitation of the Onondaga Nation, one of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, a Jesuit priest by the name of Simon Le Moyne, accompanied by soldiers and coureurs des bois, including Pierre Esprit Radisson, set up a mission, known as Ste. Marie de Gannentaha on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake. Jesuit missionaries reported salty brine springs around the southern end of what they referred to as "Salt Lake", known today as Onondaga Lake in honor of the historic tribe. French fur traders established trade throughout the New York area among the Iroquois. Dutch and English colonists also were traders, and the English nominally claimed the area, from their upstate base at Albany, New York. During the American Revolutionary War, the highly decentralized Iroquois divided into groups and bands that supported the British, and two tribes that supported the American-born rebels, or patriots. Settlers came into central and western New York from eastern parts of the state and New England after the American Revolutionary War and various treaties with and land sales by Native American tribes. The subsequent designation of this area by the state of New York as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation provided the