The Year The Army Stopped Niagara Falls
In 1969, the Army Corps of Engineers accomplished an awesome feat: They turned off Niagara Falls. They did it to clean up the area, and check for structural integrity. Here are pictures of this bizarre episode in structural engineering history.These pictures were taken by tourists who visited the dry falls in 1969. Environmental design blog Mammoth explains the context:
For six months in the winter and fall of 1969, Niagara's American Falls were "de-watered", as the Army Corps of Engineers conducted a geological survey of the falls' rock face, concerned that it was becoming destabilized by erosion. During the interim study period, the dried riverbed and shale was drip-irrigated, like some mineral garden in a tender establishment period, by long pipes stretched across the gap, to maintain a sufficient and stabilizing level of moisture. For a portion of that period, while workers cleaned the former river-bottom of unwanted mosses and drilled test-cores in search of instabilities, a temporary walkway was installed a mere twenty feet from the edge of the dry falls, and tourists were able to explore this otherwise inaccessible and hostile landscape.via Mammoth
Photos from Russ Glasson's Flickr stream.
Here are the falls as the look ordinarily, running with water.
Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.
I was 8 years old when this was happening and I distinctly remember the day I walked on the dry riverbed. It was an eerie experience that I had forgotten until I read this. Reply
Yeah yeah. Big whoop.
I once stopped the Angel Falls with nothing but a large log, four metres of rope and Chuck Norris.
To be honest...Chuck did most of the work. Reply
I once stopped the Angel Falls with nothing but a large log, four metres of rope and Chuck Norris.
To be honest...Chuck did most of the work. Reply
Every geology teacher I've ever had (there have been quite a few) has hated the Army Corps of Engineers. Talk of how they are destroying the Mississippi and other important rivers was common. They may move mountains (literally in some cases) but they ignore the geologic facts about where they are working and usually end up doing greater harm in the long run.
The engineering building on my campus has the phrase "The control of nature for the benefit of man" carved into the front. And if that phrase sounds familiar it's because John McPhee (best writer about geology/the west ever) came here and saw it and found it so arrogant and telling he decided to make it the title of one of his best books. Reply
The engineering building on my campus has the phrase "The control of nature for the benefit of man" carved into the front. And if that phrase sounds familiar it's because John McPhee (best writer about geology/the west ever) came here and saw it and found it so arrogant and telling he decided to make it the title of one of his best books. Reply
Why would they even bother to test the rock face for instabilities? What can they possibly do to stop it from eroding, and why would they want to? The falls have been moving backwards through erosion for thousands of years, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Reply
So the whole point of this was to build a secret base behind the falls, right? RIGHT?
Drilling to test structural integrity. Surrrre. Reply
Drilling to test structural integrity. Surrrre. Reply
Yeah, I remember that. Though I live just 90 miles away, and have gone to Niagara Falls many times (and will go again next month for EerieCon) I tried to talk my parents to going there to see the diverted falls at the time, but failed...
Plans to remove some of the talus (the collapsed rock at the base of the falls) were dropped when it was decided that the stuff might actually be helping support the rock face. Reply
Plans to remove some of the talus (the collapsed rock at the base of the falls) were dropped when it was decided that the stuff might actually be helping support the rock face. Reply
The American Falls, and the very-much-smaller Bridal Veil Falls (to the right of the American Falls, when viewed from the Canadian side) are considerably easier to "shut off" than the larger, shared Horseshoe Falls (erroneously called the "Canadian Falls").
The American and Bridal Veil Falls are the result of a side-stream in the Niagara River (and, technically, the Niagara River is a Strait) where the river flows around Goat Island (the trees along the top of the first image are all on Goat Island.
Seen in this satellite image [maps.google.com] you can tell that the side stream to the north side of Goat Island is actually very narrow relative the total width of the "River."
Slightly south and west of Goat Island is the International Control Structure, which regulates and "evens out" the flow of water over the Horseshoe Falls. This control structure can almost completely stop the flow of water going over the Falls, and has done so several times. The water flow is lowered nightly (when the falling water is less visible to tourists) to keep the brink as stationary as possible, protecting the position of Niagara Falls, geographically, to keep the tourist dollars flowing and to prevent any disasters that might result from collapsing gorge walls &c.
Click on over to the Hot Docs Library to view a terrific little doc about Niagara Falls called "The Falls," if you're more interested in this part of the world. [hotdocslibrary.ca]
(I've been fishing in the Gorge with Wes Hill, the older man in this documentary)
Also, if you look at the satellite imagery further upriver, you'll note that the Canadian side of the river looks like a long park, with private residences in it, all the way to Fort Erie, to the south.
The American side of the river is dotted with nasty industrial sites, places where illegal dumping of toxic chemicals into the land and river went on for a good portion of the 20th Century.
I think it's most fair, then, that even though the Bridal Veil and American Falls are both on the American side, we Canadians get the view of them. :)
[Clearly I know too much about this stuff...but I grew up there, and worked in Tourism for many years, so I kind of had a lot of info stuffed into my head...]
thanks for posting this, Annalee! Reply
The American and Bridal Veil Falls are the result of a side-stream in the Niagara River (and, technically, the Niagara River is a Strait) where the river flows around Goat Island (the trees along the top of the first image are all on Goat Island.
Seen in this satellite image [maps.google.com] you can tell that the side stream to the north side of Goat Island is actually very narrow relative the total width of the "River."
Slightly south and west of Goat Island is the International Control Structure, which regulates and "evens out" the flow of water over the Horseshoe Falls. This control structure can almost completely stop the flow of water going over the Falls, and has done so several times. The water flow is lowered nightly (when the falling water is less visible to tourists) to keep the brink as stationary as possible, protecting the position of Niagara Falls, geographically, to keep the tourist dollars flowing and to prevent any disasters that might result from collapsing gorge walls &c.
Click on over to the Hot Docs Library to view a terrific little doc about Niagara Falls called "The Falls," if you're more interested in this part of the world. [hotdocslibrary.ca]
(I've been fishing in the Gorge with Wes Hill, the older man in this documentary)
Also, if you look at the satellite imagery further upriver, you'll note that the Canadian side of the river looks like a long park, with private residences in it, all the way to Fort Erie, to the south.
The American side of the river is dotted with nasty industrial sites, places where illegal dumping of toxic chemicals into the land and river went on for a good portion of the 20th Century.
I think it's most fair, then, that even though the Bridal Veil and American Falls are both on the American side, we Canadians get the view of them. :)
[Clearly I know too much about this stuff...but I grew up there, and worked in Tourism for many years, so I kind of had a lot of info stuffed into my head...]
thanks for posting this, Annalee! Reply
The Army Corps was probably more worried about preserving the hydroelectric power of the Falls than their scenic beauty. WikiP says that the total generating capacity at the Falls is 4.4 GW, which is about 1% of all US electricity consumption. At 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that would be worth about $10M a day! I doubt they ever run at that full capacity - it would probably divert all the water from the falls themselves - but even at half power that would be a lot of money lost if the falls weren't running right. Reply
Is it just me or is this just BEGGING for some sort of conspiracy, secret base installation, looking for treasure, downed alien space craft kind of story? Reply
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
— The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams Reply
— The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams Reply
So, this is something I knew nothing about. Screw grad school, this is the best thing I learned today.
Well actually I read about King Ludwig II of Bavaria this morning and he is uncommonly awesome as far as monarchs go, but for a normal day this would win. Reply
Well actually I read about King Ludwig II of Bavaria this morning and he is uncommonly awesome as far as monarchs go, but for a normal day this would win. Reply
Ok, so maybe you are just ever so slightly superior at hockey. But did you ever bring a waterfall to a screeching halt? Let's see Sid the Kid do that! We are America and mother nature is our bitch!
U-S-A! U-S-A! Reply
U-S-A! U-S-A! Reply
I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they only stopped the American one, which is a lot smaller than the Horseshoe Falls, which is in Canada on a separate fork of the Niagara. That last shot is the Horseshoe Falls, not the one that was stopped.
Oops...just like Palmgren said earlier. Reply
Oops...just like Palmgren said earlier. Reply
cool...my folks live about a 5 minute walk from the falls (canadian)...it's actually far more impressive than you can imagine...
don't ever come here on your honeymoon - ugh...come in the spring just for the day on your way somewhere else...the US side is crappy but the Canadian side is a giant park with flowers and whatnot... Reply
don't ever come here on your honeymoon - ugh...come in the spring just for the day on your way somewhere else...the US side is crappy but the Canadian side is a giant park with flowers and whatnot... Reply
One point to note was that the American geological team determined that there was nothing they could do to stop the erosion and, as such, just cleaned up a bit of rock and left the falls to continue on its path to becoming a rapids.
And yeah, Picture 6 is the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, which wasn't shut off. Reply
And yeah, Picture 6 is the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, which wasn't shut off. Reply
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