When the Niagara Falls were dry in 1969

[MathewDH]

<p>An interesting photo set and a rough video.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338793/Niagara-Falls-ran-dry-Photos-moment-iconic-waterfall-came-standstilll.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338793/Niagara-Falls-ran-dry-Photos-moment-iconic-waterfall-came-standstilll.html</a></p>

<p>Mathew</p>

[jwallphoto]

<p>My dad still keeps a few round stones that my siblings and I collected as kids roaming around the dried river floor. I've forgotten whether we have pictures.</p>

[scott_murphy_photography]

<p>That is absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing.</p>

[joshroot]

I had never heard of that before. Pretty interesting.

 

However, I am confused. Did they remove rock material from the base or not? The article makes conflicting statements

on the issue.

[tom_harvey3]

<p>I was there in 1969 to see it, and it really was a strange sight. IIRC, very little material (rock) was removed during the project.</p>

<p>The de-watering of Niagara Falls was covered some years ago in an episode of "Modern Marvels" on the History Channel.</p>

[shawngibson]

<p>The big story was the moon. I was born July 17/69. No one was unfortunately interested at the time...for obvious reasons.</p>

[steve_levine]

<p>I have family photos, 126 Kodachromes of this. It should be noted that this was the American side only, not the famous Canadian "Horseshoe Falls" side.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>I would imagine the rocks at the base were placed there intentionally to break the fall or you'd end up with erosion that would eventually slope the geography into a rapid.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>Michael - </p>

<p>Intentionally by nature. I don't believe that any of the rocks at the bottom were placed by man. The cliff around the falls has collapsed several times. I believe that one of the more recent was in the 20th century. </p>

<p>The Corp was going to remove rock from the basin to stem the tide of erosion and determined it not feasible to do so. Instead they decided (along with the Canadians to control the flow of water over the falls via a series of dams and diversions. Most of the time the falls are flowing at 70-90% capacity. At night and weekdays (non-tourist times) they slow the flow down considerably more. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[dbcooper]

<blockquote>

<p>However, I am confused. Did they remove rock material from the base or not? The article makes conflicting statements on the issue.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The rock was there as part of the falls' self-erosion process. At the time, engineers believed the face of the American falls were in danger of an imminent major collapse. The Corps of Engineers removed some of the rock pile here and there to allow working room/access for drilling the unstable/fractured rock walls at the base and face of the falls and grouting in tieback (retention) bolts. They also moved some to do drilling/core sampling for geologic testing to assess the extent and location of major rock fractures. It was basically put back for erosion control, and functions like using rock (riprap) on a river bank or a shore.</p>

<p>The original intent was to remove almost the whole rock pile permanently, and 'repair' the face of the falls so as to have a more impressive-looking and longer-lasting attraction. That went south when the actual costs to do that far exceeded original estimates. You could say the work that was done was a 'band-aid job'. No one was sure how long the 'band-aid' would last - so far, so good.</p>

<p>I was in 8th grade when the falls got turned back on - a weird and marvelous year. A braggart named Joe Namath quarterbacked the Jets to win the Super Bowl, we went to the moon and back, and the 'Miracle Mets' won the World Series (Tug McGraw, Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver were on the pitching staff).</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>I forget the estimated dates, but archaelogy research in the area has allowed the researchers to postulate that the original site of the falls 12000 years ago at the end of the last ice age was at Lake Ontario and that they are gradually receding in the direction of Lake Erie. Human intervention in the local flow like that of 1969 will definitely not alter that. What might alter it though is the increased demand for water along the upper lakes, which if not controlled, may result in the eventual drying of most of the bed of the St. Lawrence river, with possible exception of the deep water canal of the seaway. Apparently the St. Lawrence river is only some 4 or 5000 years old, within the history of our indigenous citizens, and was apparently created by some minor tilt of the world's axis, which shifted the emptying of Lake Ontario from a route southward to that north eastward.</p>

<p>The whole great lakes - St. Lawrence chronology is fascinating and I know only litle about it. Our local Montmorency Falls, which empties into the St. Lawrence, is not as wide as Niagara, but quite a bit higher and truly splendid to see when the annual rains or late winter melting create a torrent of flow. This summer, one of the driest ever, reduced the falls to a trickle for a couple of months and exposed the jagged underface. </p>

[clay2]

<p>I was there for my second honeymoon in October 1969. Walked across to U.S. side and<br>

peeked over the edge. Lot of great holes in river bed. Heard they found quite a number<br>

of bodies from mob hits. May just be rumours though. Will find my Kodachromes from<br>

that time.<br>

Best regards,</p>

<p>/Clay</p>

[james_kennedy9]

<p>Thanks for posting this thread. I was born and raised in Niagara Falls and graduated from N.F. High School in 1954. In 1969, I was 11 years into my Air Force career, and was stationed in Nebraska, but came home to see the folks. By coincidence, I happened to be there when they turned off the water, and somewhere in my garage there are photos of the scene.</p>

<p>Niagara Falls has the distinction of being the falls with the most volume of water flowing over it since it drains four of the five great lakes. The origin of the Falls is at the Niagara escarpment, a ridge line that parallels the southern shore of Lake Ontario, and is about 8-10 miles south of where the Niagara river flows into Lake Ontario. It has taken the river about 17,000 years to carve its way to its present position and the last ice age gave birth to the lakes and rivers.</p>

<p>This is not the first time that water stopped flowing over the Falls. The last time was about 1850, when a massive ice jam near Buffalo formed a temporary dam to stop the flow. The people that lived near the crest of the Falls, noticed that the roar of the Falls ceased, and they came out and prayed and sang hymns because they thought it was the end of the world.</p>

<p>Niagara Falls is the world birthplace of the electrochemical industry and during WW2, there were about two dozen major chemical plants there producing valuable chemicals. Now those plants are in China, but we have a remnant of the chemical output known as the Love Canal. Crooked and incompetent politicians destroyed the city and today it looks like a third world slum.</p>

<p> </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Some very interesting photos of Niagara Falls completely frozen in 1911:<br>

[<a href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/niagarafalls.asp">Link</a>]</p>