It was March 30, 1848. Niagara Falls was completely silent. The water did not flow for 30-40 hours, so residents panicked.
The falls were already a major tourist attraction at this time, and houses from the United States and Canada were converted into accommodation, mills and hydroelectric dams were built around the river. On our German-language tour from New York to Niagara Falls , our guide tells you this fascinating story, among other things.
As an American farmer was walking just before midnight on March 29, he noticed something strange - the first time that no waterfall could be heard. As he got closer, he saw that there was no water at all.
In the morning there was a great silence. Mills and factories stopped working. You could see the riverbed, the fish wasting away, the turtles were wandering around. The locals walked through an area where water had been flowing just hours before and they found pistols, bayonets and tomahawks, which they kept as souvenirs.
Our Niagara Falls excursions
Many then probably thought - is the end of the world near?
Thousands rushed to church to pray for waterfalls. Nobody had an explanation for this event. At this time the telegraph was a new invention, the nearest city, Buffalo, was three hours away and only if the trains were on time.
Soon news reached the city from Buffalo that the strong southwesterly winds had drawn huge blocks of ice into Lake Erie, blocking the path to the Niagara River, forming a sort of ice dam.
This resulted in huge crowds gathering in the riverbed of the falls where there were now no falls. Even US soldiers marched through the bed where the falls once came down, which of course wasn't safe because no one knew when the water would start again.
There was no water until March 31st, when suddenly, in the distance, a familiar sound was heard. With a deafening thunder, everything was filled with water again. The "ice dam" collapsed and the river was able to run again.
This was the case until 1969, when American engineers this time intentionally "cut off" the falls, that is, diverted the Niagara Stream for several months, far from the American side of the falls. The original plan was to remove a large amount of rocks at the bottom of the waterfall and clean the riverbed. However, this idea was abandoned after a few months due to high costs. Meanwhile, engineers surveyed the area and removed a number of things to slow the gradual erosion of Niagara Falls. After a while they let the river flow again.
Where are the Niagara Falls or where are the Niagara Falls?
Niagara Falls is located on the American-Canadian border on the eastern side of the North American continent. They are about 6.5 hours drive from New York.
Where is the Niagara Falls Hydroelectric Power Station?
The Niagara Parks Power Station is located approximately 1km south of Niagara Falls. The power plant where Nikola Tesla and investor George Westinghouse once developed the first hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls. By the way, there is a statue of Nikola Tesla in Niagara Parks.