Watkins Glen, NY Shirts

Water made Watkins Glen, and speed made it famous. Behind the village, a stream has cut a two-mile gorge through layered stone, dropping over nineteen waterfalls past cliffs, grottoes, and stone stairways that feel almost architectural, and people have been climbing through it in awe since the 1800s. Then, in October 1948, the village found its second calling: sports cars roared around a 6.6-mile circuit that started and finished right downtown, the first road race of its kind in postwar America. Racing eventually moved to a permanent track on the hill, where it thrives to this day, but you can still drive the original course through the village streets, past the old start line. Our Watkins Glen design merges the two legacies: a checkered flag unfurling into a ribbon of falling water, gorge walls on one side, roadway on the other. Nineteen waterfalls, one finish line, one very small town holding both. Local Watkins Glen businesses take the grid on this page as they join ShirtMap.