Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls are in the extreme south of the province of Ontario where the waters of Lake Erie plummet down almost 60 m (197 ft) into Lake Ontario below. Niagara Falls are amongst the largest, most beautiful and certainly most famous waterfalls in the world. They were first chronicled in 1678 by Jesuit missionary Louis Hennepin, who followed the sound of the rushing waters upstream along Lake Ontario to discover this great body of falling water, nowadays seen by over 12 million visitors a year.

The falls are in two parts, the concave Horseshoe Falls, 640 m (2100 ft) across, which are Canadian, and in the Province of Ontario, and the American Falls, about 330 m (1083 ft) across, in the State of New York, so the national boundary between Canada and the States runs through the middle. Before the waters were used for hydro-electric power almost six million liters of water a second hurtled over the rocky rim. A Canadian/American agreement in 1951 for joint use guaranteed close on 3 million liters a second in summer and 1.4 million in winter. The spray rising from the foaming cauldron at the foot of the falls has beautiful rainbows when the sun shines.

Below the falls the Niagara River flows through the deep walls of the gorge, between 80 and 300 m (263 and 985 ft) across, forming the Whirlpool Rapids as the gorge narrows to the north-west.

Just 6 km (4 mi.) below the Horseshoe Falls the river changes course and turns north-east, and at that point swirls around in another seething cauldron, this time known as the Whirlpool, before plunging down through the Lower Rapids into Lake Ontario.

The falls came into being during the last Ice Age, when the river ran over a chalk plateau, part of the Niagara Escarpment, before dropping to the level of Lake Ontario where the city of Lewiston stands today. As the water undercut and wore away its rim, the falls moved upstream relatively quickly, and in the last 3000 years have moved from the point of Rainbow Bridge to where they are today. The pace of erosion depends on the volume of water rushing over the crest. At present the cut-back in the area of the Horseshoe Falls is from 6-10 cm (2-4 in.) a year. It can thus be estimated that in a few hundred thousand years they will be level with the American city of Buffalo.

At present hydro-electric stations with a total capacity of 3 million kw are installed at the Niagara Falls. Plans for extension have been strongly opposed.

There are wonderful views of Niagara from the viewing platforms on the Canadian side. There are also a number of towers, open day and night, such as the Skylon and the Minolta Tower, which are amongst the best points for night viewing, since the falls are floodlit at night.