Ithaca
The Central New York city of Ithaca is the county seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area. Named after the Greek isle of Ithaca, the area is home to Cornell University and Tompkins Cortland Community College, which help to give it its reputation for being a college city. At a little over 30,000 residents, the city is heavily influenced during the school year by the increase in population from the students that reside there seasonally. Inhabitants at the time of the Europeans arriving were the Saponi and Tutelo Indians, and the area has been influenced by numerous railroad developments, and by the addition of the Erie Canal.