Five Major Things Binghamton, NY is Most Known For

New to Binghamton? Welcome. Maybe you recently moved here from somewhere, anywhere else, and are not familiar with our fair city, the Triple Cities and the Southern Tier in general.

Maybe you are here for the first time as a student at Binghamton University or SUNY Broome Community College. Welcome to the Binghamton area and welcome to our colleges!

For those of you who are new to the Triple Cities area, here are five major things (yeah, I know there are many more, but I'm sticking to five for this article) that the Binghamton area is most known for, in no particular order.

Spiedie

Pronounced "speedy", these are chunks of meat - lamb, chicken, pork, veal, venison or beef marinated and served best on a slice of Italian bread, although a sub roll is what most use these days.

We have an annual Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally each summer at Otsiningo Park in Binghamton to celebrate the Spiedie and other things as well. It's the largest event of the year in the Binghamton area.

Carousels

Binghamton is known as the Carousel Capitol of the World. You may ask why. Well, we have six of them.

You'll find them at C. Fred Johnson Park in Johnson City, George W. Johnson Park in Endicott, West Endicott Park in Endicott, Highland Park in Endwell, Recreation Park on the Westside of Binghamton, and the Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton.

All are operating today except the carousel at the Ross Park Zoo. That carousel, owned by the City of Binghamton, is temporarily closed, but there are plans in place for it to be operational in the future.

Rod Serling

Binghamton is the childhood home of American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator - Rod Serling. He is most known for the television series 'Twilight Zone.'

For more information about Rod Serling and his legacy in the Binghamton area, visit the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation website.

Link Flight Simulator

Link was a maker of flight simulators based here in the Binghamton area.  The company was one of the leading manufacturers of aircraft simulators in the world. The Link Flight Trainer was designed by Edwin A. Link, using an electrically driven pneumatic motion system to realistically simulate movement of flight.

For a more details history of the Link Flight Trainer, visit the Most website.

Parlor City

Why is Binghamton also referred to as the Parlor City? It seems the name came from a reporter from a Scranton, Pennsylvania newspaper, who coined the team back in 1874 according to an article by Tom Cawley of the Binghamton Press in a January 17th, 1964 edition of the paper.

The article goes on to explain that this person from a Scranton, PA newspaper had visited our fair city for a firemen's convention, and after an enjoyable stay, went back home and wrote an article about Binghamton, giving it the 'Parlor City' nickname.There's more to the story and you can read about it here.

Beyond the five mentioned above, the Binghamton area is also known as the birthplace of several major businesses including IBM, Endicott-Johnson, Macintosh Labs, and Dick's Sporting Goods.