Falling Down

Back at the falls today, and they are a grand old sight.

In keeping with my rant yesterday however, it's hard to truly appreciate their splendour when the view also includes lego-like hotels, a huge casino, and a gigantic bridge-like walkway the Americans have built right next to one of the falls so they can see the Canadian side better.

I couldn't get a single decent picture of the area as a whole, partly because I couldn't find anything within the shots to give them perspective. This shot is horseshoe falls, at the point you can get closest.


Falls Facts

600.000 (US) gallons cascade over horseshoe falls every second.
They are 180 feet high.
And 2,500 feet wide.
The Falls began flowing 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age.
They erode one foot per year

Once in the 1800's the falls froze almost completely due to a backlog of ice, allowing people to walk out onto them.
In all, fifteen daredevils have gone over the falls.
Five of them were killed.
The first person to go over the falls in a barrel and live to tell the tale was a 63-year-old schoolteacher.
At one time the famous 'Blondin' performed tightrope walks across the falls, once even doing so carrying his manager!

Both The US and Canada use the falls to produce hydro-electric power.
Approximately 25 million tourists visit Niagara Falls each year.