Ever since the Second Mexican War, many Americans still vividly remembered the Royal Navy sailing from the Canadian port city of Toronto to attack the US Great Lakes cities of Rochester, Cleveland and Buffalo. Promising never to be that helpless again, the US embarked on a ship building program that would result in the Great Lakes Battleships. Should war ever come, the US would be ready and more than willing to return the favor to their northern neighbors, which had been visited upon them during the Second Mexican War.