Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a waterfall on the Niagara River in northeastern North America, one of the continent's most famous spectacles, lying on the border between Ontario, Canada, and New York state. The falls are divided into two principal parts separated by Goat Island: the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls.

The falls comprise three waterfalls — American Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls — and the main stream flowing south of Goat Island narrows from 3,200 feet at the head of the rapids to 1,100 feet between the gorge walls at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls.

The pool at the base of the Horseshoe Falls is thought to be deeper than the falls are high, and the greatest depth found by sounding was 192 feet a few hundred feet from the foot of the falls ^{2Description of the Niagara Quadrangle (Geologic Atlas Folio) · U.S. Geological Survey ↗}. The Whirlpool is about 1,300 feet in diameter, and its central portion is a great eddy in which floating objects have been carried around for weeks ^{2Description of the Niagara Quadrangle (Geologic Atlas Folio) · U.S. Geological Survey ↗}.

The persistence of Niagara Falls as a cataract rests on the near-horizontal disposition of the Silurian rock beneath the river. Water flows over a more resistant layer of Lockport dolomite about 80 feet thick, underneath which lies a softer layer of about 60 feet of Rochester shale. Infiltrating the joints of the dolomite, water exerts hydrostatic pressure and slowly dissolves the caprock, while water from above rapidly erodes the shale beneath it. The shale gives way, the unsupported dolomite blocks fall away, and the brink remains vertical as it retreats upstream.

The falls are about 12,000 years old and originally lay about seven miles down river at Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario. Erosion has since carried the brink to its present site. The Niagara River itself is estimated to be 12,000 years old.

The gorge of the Niagara River begins at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and extends in a zigzag course to the escarpment at Lewiston, a distance of 7 miles as the river flows.

As the outlet of Lake Erie, the Niagara River carries the discharge of the upper four Great Lakes and descends 326 feet between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Starting about 1.7 million years ago during the last Ice Age, continental glaciers up to two miles thick covered the Niagara Frontier region.

The Horseshoe Falls eroded at a rate of about 5.5 feet (1.7 metres) per year from 1842 through 1905; large diversions of water above the falls for hydroelectric power have since lessened the erosion rate, and control works upstream both reduced the pace of retreat and maintain an even distribution of flow across the American and Canadian cataracts.

Roughly 3,160 tons of water flow over Niagara Falls every second. Of that volume, 681,750 gallons per second pass over the Horseshoe Falls, while 75,750 gallons per second pass over the American and Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls thus carry about 90 percent of the river's discharge.

The water plunges at 32 feet per second. At the base, it strikes with 280 tons of force at the American and Bridal Veil Falls and with 2,509 tons of force at the Horseshoe Falls.

The generating complex on the Canadian side of the Niagara River includes the 1,516 MW Sir Adam Beck II GS and the 174 MW Sir Adam Beck Pump GS, and produces about 12,300 gigawatt-hours of energy each year — roughly 40 per cent of OPG's hydroelectric production. The 10-unit, 446-megawatt station first began producing power toward the end of 1921 under its original name, the Queenston-Chippawa Hydroelectric Plant. The station was renamed after Sir Adam Beck in 1950 — the 25th anniversary of his death.

On 7 June 1956 a rockslide destroyed the area's largest privately owned hydroelectric plant, severely limiting the availability of low-cost power in the region. The Niagara Power Project is New York State's biggest electricity producer, providing up to 2.6 million kilowatts of clean electricity. Its clean energy is generated by two facilities, the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant, with a combined 25 turbines spun by 748,000 gallons of water per second. The project is located in Lewiston, 4.5 miles downstream from Niagara Falls, and uses a gated tunnel under the city to divert water from the Niagara River into two reservoirs. The 2,400,000-kw Niagara Power Project was the largest hydropower complex in the Western World when it began operating in January 1961 — less than three years after construction began.

The 1950 Niagara Treaty was signed between the United States and Canada on 27 February 1950, recognizing their primary obligation to preserve and enhance the scenic beauty of the Niagara Falls and River. Article II commits the two countries to complete remedial works that enhance the beauty of the falls by distributing the waters to produce an unbroken crestline, while Article VI provides that waters made available for power purposes shall be divided equally between Canada and the United States.

The treaty sets a minimum flow over the falls of 2,832 m³/s (100,000 ft³/s) in daytime from April 1 to September 15, and 1,416 m³/s (50,000 ft³/s) at other times. Article IV bars power diversions that would reduce the flow below these levels, and water in excess of the falls flow minimums and other priority uses is split equally between both countries and can be used for hydropower production.

The treaty establishes an order of precedence of water use, which includes domestic and sanitary purposes and navigation. On-site representatives of the International Niagara Committee conduct weekly inspections to ensure compliance with the treaty's conditions and to investigate violations.

The International Niagara Board of Control was established by the International Joint Commission in 1953 and provides advice on matters related to water levels and flows in the Niagara River. Its main duties are to ensure the operation of the Chippawa-Grass Island Pool upstream of Niagara Falls within the limits of its directive, revised in 2017, and to oversee the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom.

During the reporting period, diversion from the Niagara River to the Sir Adam Beck I and II plants averaged 1,577 cubic metres per second, while diversion to the Robert Moses Niagara Power Project averaged 2,516 cubic metres per second. Under an international treaty, the flow of water over Niagara Falls is reduced during the night to allow more water to flow into the intakes used for power generation, keeping the falls' natural beauty unaffected during prime viewing hours.

In August 1895 the Adams No. 1 generating station of the Niagara Falls Power Company first supplied electric power to local industries in Niagara Falls, New York, as the first large-scale multiphase power station with commercial operations at the falls. The station's entry into service marked a decisive victory for alternating-current systems over direct-current systems. The following year, in November 1896, electrical power was transmitted from the Adams Power Plant in Niagara Falls to Buffalo, the first long-distance transmission of alternating current. By May 1900 the plant had reached full capacity of ten 5,000-HP generators.

New York's public power movement began when Governor Charles Evans Hughes declared in 1907 that the state's undeveloped waterpower should be preserved and held for the benefit of the people rather than surrendered to private interests. On 18 May 1910 the Niagara Transformer Station of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario began distributing power from Niagara Falls over a long-distance network of high voltage transmission lines to southern Ontario — the first time power was distributed to an entire region that way.

• 1907
  Hughes and the public power movement
  Governor Charles Evans Hughes declared that the state's undeveloped waterpower should be preserved and held for the benefit of the people rather than surrendered to private interests ^{6A History of Innovation (NYPA Timeline) · New York Power Authority ↗}.
• 18 May 1910
  Regional distribution in Ontario
  The Niagara Transformer Station of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario began distributing power from Niagara Falls over a long-distance network of high voltage transmission lines to southern Ontario, the first time power was distributed to an entire region that way ^{8Milestones: Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant, 1895 · Engineering and Technology History Wiki (IEEE) ↗}.

The Niagara Parks Commission was created in 1885 to maintain the area around the falls, and in 1887 it removed the existing deteriorating staircase and installed a water-hydraulic-powered elevator.

The first version of the tunnels behind the falls opened in May 1889; because they were pitch black, guides carried lanterns to escort visitors safely to the open portal behind the rushing water.

The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, designated by the United States Congress in 2008, is a collection of one city, two towns, two villages, parks, sites and attractions along the Niagara River known as the Falls to Fort region. Its mission is to preserve, protect and promote the historic, natural and cultural resources of the area stretching from Niagara Falls to Old Fort Niagara.

In 1987 the Niagara River was designated an Area of Concern as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, after industrial and municipal discharges degraded water quality, habitat and sediment.

In addition to Great Lakes Restoration Initiative efforts, federal and state governments and responsible parties have collectively spent hundreds of millions to remediate hazardous waste sites in the area. The Black Rock Canal cleanup removed about 180,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments from the navigation channel in the Niagara River watershed.

In 1859 Jean François Gravelet, a Frenchman known professionally as Charles Blondin, became the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. His advertised ascensions always had different theatrical variations, including tightrope walks blindfolded, in a sack, with his manager on his back, sitting down midway to cook an omelet, and pushing a wheelbarrow while dressed as an ape.

On 11 July 1886 Carlisle Graham took the first of five barrel trips through the rapids and, after swirling in the intense rapids for 30 minutes, arrived on shore dizzy and ill but alive.

In 1930 George Stathakis went over the falls in a ten-foot, one-ton wooden barrel that was caught behind the falls for 14 hours; he died before he could be rescued, though his 105-year-old pet turtle survived the trip.

On 15 June 2012 aerialist Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk across a high wire stretched directly over Niagara Falls; he started around 10:15 p.m. from the American side and crossed some 200 feet in the air on a 2-inch-wide steel cable strung over the Horseshoe Falls, carrying a 40-pound balance bar.

On 6 August 1918 a dumping scow with two men aboard broke loose from its towing tug and became lodged in the rapids of the upper Niagara River. The men opened the scow's bottom dumping doors so that it grounded in the shallow rapids only 600 metres from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls. They were rescued the next day by breeches buoy on a line shot out from the roof of the adjacent powerhouse, with the cooperation of Niagara Parks police, fire and police departments and the U.S. The wreckage has remained just above the brink of the falls for over a century, shifting significantly from its spot on 31 October 2019 when high winds forced it further toward the brink.

On 27 January 1938 the Upper Steel Arch Bridge, known locally as the Honeymoon Bridge, collapsed under pressure from the buildup of ice in the gorge below the falls.

In 1969 the American Falls was dewatered: a cofferdam built at the east end of Goat Island, completed on 12 June 1969, diverted the water from the American Falls to the Horseshoe Falls to allow geological surveys to take place. A significant amount of talus had built up under the American Falls from rockfalls, especially major events in 1931 and 1954 that some people thought took away from the aesthetic appearance of the falls. The stability of the area near the falls was in question. The talus at the base of the falls was mapped but ultimately left in place, and the cofferdam was removed on 25 November 1969 and the falls returned to its previous state.

Native Americans living in the Niagara region were most likely the first people to behold the power of the falls, and the first European to document the area was the French priest Father Louis Hennepin during a 1678 expedition.

The development of the rail system in the 1800s opened Niagara Falls to throngs of visitors, and in 1804 Jerome Bonaparte honeymooned there with his American bride, credited by lore with starting the honeymoon tradition. Niagara Falls has been one of the most popular destinations for honeymooners in the world since promoters for the area helped institute honeymooning as a tradition in the mid-nineteenth century.