Two waterfalls in W New York, USA and S Ontario, Canada; between L Erie and L Ontario, on the international border; American Falls 55·5 m/182 ft high, 328 m/1076 ft wide; Canadian Falls, known as Horseshoe Falls, 54 m/177 ft high, 640 m/2100 ft wide; separated by Goat Island; Cave of the Winds behind the American Falls; Rainbow Bridge (1941) between Canada and USA below the falls; part of the flow above the Canadian Falls diverted to supplement the shallower US Falls; mean daily flow over both falls before diversion c.5000 cu m/200 000 cu ft; both Canada and the USA use the falls for hydroelectric power; world-famous tourist attraction since early 19th-c, developed after railway arrived, 1836; twin resort towns of Niagara Falls in New York (visited by Louis Hennepin 1678) and Ontario; scene of many daredevil exploits, such as the tightrope crossing by Blondin (1859) and Annie Edson Taylor's shooting of the Horseshoe Falls in a sealed barrel in 1901.
Niagara Falls (French: les Chutes du Niagara) comprises three separate waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls (sometimes called the Canadian Falls), the American Falls, and the smaller, adjacent Bridal Veil Falls. While not exceptionally high, Niagara Falls is very wide. With more than 6 million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water falling over the crestline every minute in high flow, and almost 4 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) on average, it is the most powerful waterfall in North America.Geographically, Niagara Falls is located about twenty minutes away from the U.S. city of Buffalo and about an hour and a half (90 minutes) away from the Canadian city of Toronto. This volume would pass over the falls if there were no hydroelectric water diversion upstream from the falls; however, water is diverted continuously from Niagara and this figure is approximately three times the actual average flow volume over the falls.
Niagara Falls is renowned for its beauty, and is both a valuable source of hydroelectric power and a challenging project for environmental preservation. A popular tourist site for over a century, the natural wonder is shared between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York.
Formation
The historical roots of Niagara Falls lie in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended some 10,000 years ago. The aerial photo clearly shows the hard caprock, the Lockport Formation (Middle Silurian), which underlies the rapids above the falls and approximately the upper third of the gorge wall. Because it erodes more easily, the river has undercut the hard cap rock and created the falls.
The original Niagara Falls were near the sites of present-day Lewiston, New York, and Queenston, Ontario, but erosion of their crest has caused the waterfalls to retreat several miles southward. Just upstream from the Falls' current location, Goat Island splits the course of the Niagara River, resulting in the separation of the Horseshoe Falls to the west from the American and Bridal Veil Falls to the east. Although erosion and recession have been slowed in this century by engineering, the falls will eventually recede far enough to drain most of Lake Erie, the bottom of which is higher than the bottom of the falls.
The Falls drop about 170 feet (52 m), although the American Falls have a clear drop of only 70 feet (21 m) before reaching a jumble of fallen rocks which were deposited by a massive rock slide in 1954. The larger Canadian Falls are about 2,600 feet (792 m) wide, while the American Falls are 1,060 feet (323 m) wide. The volume of water approaching the Falls during peak flow season is 202,000 cubic feet per second (5,720 m³/s). During the summer months, when maximum diversion of water for hydroelectric power occurs, 100,000 ft³/s (2,832 m³/s) of water actually traverses the Falls, some 90% of which goes over the Horseshoe Falls.
Some controversy exists over which European first gave a written, eyewitness description of the Falls. Most historians however agree that Father Louis Hennepin observed and described the Falls much earlier, in 1677, after traveling in the region with explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, thus bringing them to the world's attention. His subsequently discredited claim that he also traveled the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico cast some doubt on the validity of his writings and sketches of Niagara Falls.
There is credible evidence, however, that Reverend Paul Ragueneau (1608–1680) discovered the falls prior to Hennepin's claim. After the American Civil War, the New York Central railroad publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and honeymoon visits. Known today as the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, it carries vehicles, trains, and pedestrians between Canada and the U.S. just below the Falls. In 1941 the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission completed the third current crossing in the immediate area of Niagara Falls with the Rainbow Bridge, carrying both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Especially after World War I, tourism boomed again as automobiles made getting to the Falls much easier. The story of Niagara Falls in the 20th century is largely that of efforts to harness the energy of the Falls for hydroelectric power and to control the rampant development on both the American and Canadian sides which threatened the area's natural beauty.
Impact on industry and commerce
The enormous energy of the Falls was long recognized as a potential source of power. The first known effort to harness the waters was in 1759, when Daniel Joncairs built a small canal above the Falls to power his sawmill. Augustus and Peter Porter purchased this area and all of American Falls in 1805 from the New York state government, and enlarged the original canal to provide hydraulic power for their gristmill and tannery. In 1853, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Mining Company was chartered, which eventually constructed the canals which would be used to generate electricity. In 1881, under the leadership of Jacob Schoellkopf, enough power was produced to send direct current to illuminate both the Falls themselves and nearby Niagara Falls village.
When Nikola Tesla, for whom a memorial was later built at Niagara Falls, invented the three-phase system of alternating current power transmission, distant transfer of electricity became possible. In 1883, the Niagara Falls Power Company, a descendant of Schoellkopf's firm, hired George Westinghouse to design a system to generate alternating current. Private companies on the Canadian side also began to harness the energy of the Falls, employing both domestic and American firms in their efforts. The water then passes through hydroelectric turbines that supply power to nearby areas of the United States and Canada before returning to the river well past the Falls.
The most powerful hydroelectric stations on the Niagara River are Sir Adam Beck 1 and 2 on the Canadian side, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant on the American side.
In August 2005, Ontario Power Generation, which is now responsible for the Sir Adam Beck stations, announced plans to build a new 10.4 km (6½ mile) tunnel to tap water from farther up the Niagara river than is possible with the existing arrangement.
Both American and the Canadian falls seen from Canada in a panoramic view.
Ships can bypass Niagara Falls by means of the Welland Canal, which in the 1960s was improved and incorporated into the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
The twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York are connected by three bridges, including the Rainbow Bridge, just downriver from the Falls, which affords the closest view of the Falls and is open to non-commercial vehicle traffic and pedestrians. Nearby Niagara Falls International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International Airport were named after the waterfall, as were Niagara University, countless local businesses, and even an asteroid.
Preservation efforts
For the first two centuries after European settlement of the area, land on both sides of Niagara Falls was privately owned. Development and commercial ventures threatened the natural beauty of the area, and visitors sometimes had to pay entrepreneurs a fee to view the Falls through holes in a fence. A series of Harrison's letters to newspapers in Boston and New York (collected in the 1882 pamphlet The Condition of Niagara Falls, and the Measures Needed to Preserve Them) were particularly influential in turning public opinion in favor of preservation. In the same year, Ontario established the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park for the same purpose. Both organizations have proved remarkably successful operations that have restricted development on both sides of the Falls and the Niagara River.
Until the modern era, the Falls were receding southward owing to erosion from two to ten feet (0.6 to 3.0 m) per year. On January 2, 1929 Canada and the United States reached an agreement on an action plan to preserve the Falls.
In addition to the effects of diversion of water to the power stations, erosion control efforts have included underwater weirs to redirect the most damaging currents, and actual mechanical strengthening of the top of the Falls. In June of that year, the Niagara River was completely diverted away from the American Falls for several months through the building of a temporary rock and earth dam (clearly visible in the photo at right), effectively shutting off the American Falls. While the Horseshoe Falls absorbed the extra flow, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the riverbed and mechanically bolted faults which would otherwise have hastened the retreat of the American Falls. A plan to remove the huge mound of talus deposited in 1954 was abandoned owing to cost, and in November 1969, the temporary dam was dynamited, restoring flow to the American Falls.
Preservation efforts have extended beyond and above the Falls themselves. Recent construction of several tall buildings (most of them hotels) on the Canadian side has caused the airflow over the Falls to change direction. Students at the University of Guelph demonstrated, using scale models, that the air passes over the top of the new hotels, causing a breeze to roll down the south sides of the buildings and spill into the gorge below the Falls, where it feeds into a whirlpool of moisture and air.
The falls in entertainment and popular culture
Daredevils
In October 1829, Sam Patch, who called himself The Yankee Leaper, jumped over the Horseshoe Falls and became the first known person to survive the plunge. Survivors of such stunts face charges and stiff fines, as it is illegal, on both sides of the border, to attempt to go over the Falls. Englishman Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, drowned in 1883 after unsuccessfully trying to swim across the whirlpools and rapids downriver from the Falls.
In what some called the "Miracle at Niagara", Roger Woodward, a seven-year-old American boy, was swept over the Horseshoe Falls protected only by a life vest on July 9, 1960, as two tourists pulled his 17-year-old sister Deanne from the river only 20 feet (6 m) from the lip of the Horseshoe Falls at Goat Island. Roger was plucked from the roiling plunge pool beneath the Horseshoe Falls after grabbing a life ring thrown to him by the crew of the Maid of the Mist boat.
On July 2, 1984, Canadian Karel Soucek from Hamilton, Ontario successfully plunged over the Horseshoe Falls in a barrel with only minor injuries.
In August 1985, Steve Trotter, an aspiring stuntman from Rhode Island, became the youngest person ever (age 22) and the first American in 25 years to go over the Falls in a barrel. Ten years later, Trotter went over the Falls again, becoming the second person to go over the Falls twice and survive.
Kirk Jones of Canton, Michigan became the first known person to survive a plunge over the Horseshoe Falls without a flotation device on October 20, 2003.
No human has ever survived a plunge over the American Falls, owing to the many boulders and the relatively weak current. All survivors and stunters have passed over the Horseshoe Falls, where there are fewer boulders and the current can "throw" a person farther away from the brink and (hopefully) avoid the boulders.
Movies and television
Already a huge tourist attraction and favorite spot for honeymooners, Niagara Falls visits rose sharply in 1953 after the release of Niagara, a movie starring Marilyn Monroe. Much of the episode Return of the Technodrome in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series take place near the Niagara Falls and its hydroelectric plant. The Falls, or more particularly, the tourist-supported complex near the Falls, was the setting of the short-lived American television show Wonderfalls in early 2004.
Other
On August 4, 2005, professional golfer John Daly attempted to drive a golf ball over Niagara Falls, an approximate distance of 362 yards (331 m), falling just short in 20 attempts.
The phrase "Niagara Falls" is often the "triggering" statement in an old Vaudeville routine more generally known as "Slowly I Turned".
The song "Over the Falls" by Primus is about a man who attempts to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
Charles Dickens described his visit to the falls in his 1842 travelogue, American Notes:
When we were seated in the little ferry-boat, and were crossing the swollen river immediately before both cataracts, I began to feel what it was: but I was in a manner stunned, and unable to comprehend the vastness of the scene. It was not until I came on Table Rock, and looked - Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright- green water!Tourism
Peak numbers of visitors occur in the summertime, when Niagara Falls are both a daytime and evening attraction. From the Canadian side, floodlights illuminate both sides of the Falls for several hours after dark (until midnight).
From the American side, the American Falls can be viewed from walkways along Prospect Park, which also features an observation tower. The Niagara Scenic Trolley offers guided trips along the American Falls.
On the Canadian side, Queen Victoria Park features manicured gardens, platforms offering spectacular views of both the American and Horseshoe Falls, and underground walkways leading into observation rooms which yield the illusion of being within the falling waters. The observation deck of the nearby Skylon Tower offers the highest overhead view of the Falls, and in the opposite direction gives views as far as distant Toronto. Along with the Minolta Tower (formerly the Konica Minolta Tower), it is one of two towers in Canada with a view of the Falls.
The Maid of the Mist cruises, named for an ancient Ongiara Indian mythical character, have carried passengers into the whirlpools beneath the Falls since 1846.
The Journey Behind the Falls - accessible by elevators from the street level entrance - consists of an observation platform and series of tunnels near the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.
Multimedia
Niagara Falls Guidebooks from the 19th Century Digitally-recreated 19th century guidebooks Niagara Falls - Fullscreen Quicktime VR Panorama Panoramic scan of the Falls from the US side Niagara Falls Virtual Tours Niagara Falls QTVR Panoramic Images Discovery Channel Canada Video - How construction of hotels have changed airflow over Niagara Falls Discovery Channel Canada Videos - Various streaming content on the history and stories of Niagara Falls. Virtual tour of Niagara Falls Niagara Falls photo gallery and information Niagare Falls Pictures Pictures of Niagara Falls from the US and CanadaNiagara Falls webcams
Niagara Falls Webcam Niagara Falls Web Camera Multiple views of the Falls Clifton Hill - Niagara Falls WebcamsCoordinates: 43°04′41.57″N, 79°04′33.31″W
User Comments Add a comment…