The New York Thruway is a toll interstate that's not really any better than the free interstates of other states except that it doesn't have as many exits. Come to think of it, that doesn't make it any better either! But the Thruway has only been in existence for the last 30 or 40 years. Before it existed, where did the snow stop?
Anyone familiar with the geography of that part of New York will be able to readily answer that the Erie Canal (now known as the New York State Barge Canal), which follows roughly the same course as the Thruway, would have been the obvious barrier for the snow. But what happened before the Erie Canal was dug?
This answer, too, should be quite obvious. Before the Erie Canal there was no barrier for the snow, which travelled from Lake Ontario south, sometimes as far as Pittsburgh. The disruption caused by all this snow made economic development difficult, if not impossible. That's why, once the Erie Canal had been finished, the economy of the northeast boomed so quickly.
This does not, of course, explain the success of the city of Rochester, New York, which is north of both the Thruway and the Barge Canal. Maybe the city's main industries, which have to do with imaging, are the result of the psychological needs of people who must spend so much of their time snowed in.