59 Fun Facts About Niagara Falls

The larger and taller Horseshoe Falls lies mainly on which country's side of the border?

It is the one in nearly every postcard shot and is often called the Canadian Falls. The American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie entirely within the United States.

The Niagara River drains which of the Great Lakes into Lake Ontario?

Lake Erie empties through the Niagara River, which carries the outflow of four of the five Great Lakes and gives the falls the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America.

Niagara Falls, only about 10,000 years old, formed as glaciers receded at the end of which ice age?

The Wisconsin glaciation was the last ice age; as it ended, meltwater from the newly formed Great Lakes carved over the Niagara Escarpment on its way to the Atlantic.

Which large US city lies just 27 km (17 miles) southeast of the falls?

Buffalo, New York, lies about 27 km (17 miles) south-southeast of the falls; Toronto is roughly 69 km away in the other direction, across the western end of Lake Ontario.

Niagara Falls visits surged in 1953 after the release of Niagara, a Technicolor film noir that starred which actress?

Marilyn Monroe got top billing for the first time in Niagara, a rare film noir shot in Technicolor, alongside Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters.

Which boat cruise has carried passengers into the spray below the falls since 1846?

Maid of the Mist began in 1846 as a ferry across the Niagara River below the falls and later became a sightseeing cruise; since 2020 its American boats have run on electric batteries.

In which 1980 superhero sequel does the Daily Planet send Clark Kent and Lois Lane to Niagara Falls?

In Superman II (1980) Lois and Clark pose as honeymooners at Niagara Falls; after Clark rescues a boy who falls over the railing, Lois throws herself into the river to test whether he is Superman.

Which sitcom couple married at Niagara Falls in a 2009 episode titled 'Niagara', sneaking onto a boat before the church ceremony?

Jim and Pam's Office wedding aired on NBC on 8 October 2009; Jim lets slip that Pam is pregnant, and the pair sneak off to marry privately on the boat.

Two days before her 1901 barrel ride, Annie Edson Taylor sent what over the falls to test the barrel?

Taylor sent her cat over the Horseshoe Falls in the barrel two days earlier; contrary to rumours, the cat survived the plunge and posed with her for photographs afterwards.

Annie Edson Taylor chose 24 October 1901 for her barrel plunge because it was what?

Taylor went over on her 63rd birthday, 24 October 1901; a schoolteacher hoping the stunt would fund her retirement, she said on climbing out, 'No one ought ever do that again.'

On one 1859 tightrope crossing of the Niagara Gorge, Charles Blondin stopped midway to cook and eat what?

Blondin carried a small stove onto the wire, cooked an omelette midway and ate it; other 1859 crossings were made blindfolded, in a sack, on stilts and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Whom did Charles Blondin carry on his back across the Niagara Gorge in 1859?

Blondin carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back in August 1859; Colcord reportedly begged him to stop halfway. Blondin's final 1860 crossing was watched by the Prince of Wales.

What did Nik Wallenda have to do for the first time on his 2012 Niagara Falls wire walk?

ABC, which broadcast the walk live, insisted Wallenda wear a safety harness tethered to the wire, the first time he had done so; the 550-metre wire followed a two-year fight for permission on both sides of the border.

Nik Wallenda's 2012 walk was the first crossing of the falls area in how many years?

Wallenda's 2012 walk was the first in 116 years: the last gorge crossing had been James Hardy's in 1896, at the end of the Victorian daredevil craze, and it took special permission from both governments.

In which year did a Lake Erie ice jam stop the flow over Niagara Falls?

On 29 March 1848 an ice jam where the Niagara River leaves Lake Erie choked off the flow for roughly 30 hours, leaving the riverbed and falls almost dry until the ice broke up.

In which year did the Army Corps of Engineers temporarily dam and dry out the American Falls?

In June 1969 the Corps built a cofferdam that dried the American Falls so engineers could study the rock pile at its base; removal was judged too costly, and the dam was taken out in November 1969.

Roughly how long until Niagara Falls erodes the remaining 32 km to the lake and ceases to exist?

Geologists estimate about 50,000 years: since forming at the escarpment's edge near Lake Ontario roughly 12,000 years ago the falls have retreated some 11 km upstream, and hydro diversion has cut erosion to about 30 cm a year.

Roughly how tall is Horseshoe Falls?

Horseshoe Falls drops about 57 m (187 ft) and is roughly 790 m wide; the American Falls is only 21 to 34 m high because giant boulders piled at its base cut the drop short.

Goat Island, which splits the falls in two, was earlier named after which flower?

Goat Island was earlier called Iris Island; the present name comes from John Stedman, an early miller who kept a herd of goats there in the 1770s, most of which died in a harsh winter.

The first written description of Niagara Falls is credited to a missionary of which nationality?

Father Louis Hennepin, a Belgian-born Recollect priest travelling with La Salle, saw the falls in December 1678 and published his account in 1683; the French Jesuit Paul Ragueneau had probably seen them decades earlier.

Barrel survivor Bobby Leach died in 1926 after what mishap in New Zealand?

Bobby Leach, who went over Horseshoe Falls in a steel barrel in 1911, died in 1926 after slipping on an orange peel during a lecture tour in Auckland; the injured leg turned gangrenous and was amputated.

What became stranded on the rocks above Horseshoe Falls in August 1918?

It is an iron scow that broke loose from a tug on 6 August 1918 and grounded above Horseshoe Falls; the two men aboard were rescued, and a Halloween 2019 storm shifted the rusting wreck about 50 metres.

Niagara's Honeymoon Bridge, replaced by the Rainbow Bridge, collapsed in 1938 because of what?

Ice in the gorge did it: a massive January 1938 ice jam pressed against the Honeymoon Bridge's steel arch until it collapsed on 27 January; its successor, the Rainbow Bridge, opened in 1941 just downriver from the falls.

What nickname is given to the exterior elevators of the Skylon Tower on the Canadian side?

The Skylon's glass-fronted exterior elevators are nicknamed the 'Yellow Bugs' for their colour; the tower opened in 1965 and rises 160 metres above street level, close enough to the border to need both countries' aviation approval.

An engineer from which country designed the 1916 Whirlpool Aero Car over the Niagara Whirlpool?

Leonardo Torres Quevedo, an engineer from Spain, designed the Whirlpool Aero Car, which opened in 1916; he also built El Ajedrecista, an early chess-playing automaton, and semi-rigid airships.

For how much did Hooker Chemical sell its Love Canal chemical landfill to the Niagara Falls school district in 1953?

One dollar bought the school district a landfill with some 19,800 tonnes of chemical byproducts beneath it; the disaster prompted the first US presidential emergency declaration for a non-natural disaster, in 1978.

The July 1814 Battle of Lundy's Lane, in what is now Niagara Falls, Ontario, was part of which conflict?

Lundy's Lane, fought on 25 July 1814, was one of the bloodiest battles of the War of 1812, pitting British and Canadian troops under Gordon Drummond against Americans under Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott.

Which company was hired in 1893 to design the alternating-current power system for the falls?

In 1893 the Cataract Construction Company chose Westinghouse Electric, holder of Nikola Tesla's AC patents, to build the generators for the Adams Power Plant, which opened in 1895; a Tesla statue stands on Goat Island.

The Robert Moses power plant was built after which nearby hydroelectric station collapsed in 1956?

Jacob Schoellkopf's company had opened its first station on the river in 1881. The replacement plant is named for the famous city planner Robert Moses.

Which landscape architect led the 1885 campaign to preserve the falls as a public reservation?

Frederick Law Olmsted led the Free Niagara campaign with painter Frederic Edwin Church and others; New York created the Niagara Reservation in 1885, and Olmsted and Calvert Vaux drew up its 1887 plan.

How old was Roger Woodward when he survived being swept over Horseshoe Falls in 1960?

Woodward was seven on 9 July 1960 when the boat he was in lost power upstream; his 17-year-old sister Deanne was pulled ashore metres from the brink, and a Maid of the Mist crew plucked him from the plunge pool.

What made Kirk Jones's plunge over Horseshoe Falls in October 2003 a first?

Kirk Jones went over Horseshoe Falls on 20 October 2003 in ordinary clothes; he survived with no flotation device or barrel, the first person known to do so, and died in 2017 trying again in an inflatable ball.

Maria Spelterini, the only woman to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope (1876), was of what nationality?

Maria Spelterini, an Italian tightrope walker aged 23, crossed the gorge in July 1876 and repeated the feat with peach baskets strapped to her feet; like Blondin's, her wire crossed the gorge rather than the falls.

Which self-styled 'Yankee Leaper' began the daredevil tradition by jumping into the gorge in 1829?

Sam Patch, 'the Yankee Leaper', jumped from a platform into the gorge below the falls in October 1829 and survived; weeks later he died leaping the Genesee Falls at Rochester, New York.

Karel Soucek survived Horseshoe Falls in a barrel in 1984 but died a year later in a barrel drop inside which venue?

At the Houston Astrodome in January 1985 Soucek's barrel was hoisted 55 metres to the roof for a drop into a water tank; released early, it struck the tank's rim, and he died of his injuries the next day.

How many people died in the February 1912 'Ice Bridge Tragedy' when the frozen river broke up?

Three people died on 4 February 1912 when the ice bridge below the falls broke up: Eldridge and Clara Stanton of Toronto and 17-year-old Burrell Hecock of Cleveland; walking on the ice bridge was banned afterwards.

The Cave of the Winds, discovered in 1834, was originally named after which Greek god?

Discovered in 1834, it was first called Aeolus' Cave after the Greek keeper of the winds; guided tours began in 1841, and although a 1954 rockfall destroyed the cave, the name survives for the walkways beneath Bridal Veil Falls.

Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls, Ontario, opened in 2003 as the world's largest indoor what?

Bird Kingdom, opened in 2003, is a multi-storey free-flying aviary billed as the world's largest indoor one; the Niagara Parks Commission runs a separate butterfly conservatory along the parkway.

Which US president toured Niagara Falls on 6 September 1901, hours before being shot in Buffalo?

William McKinley visited the falls on 6 September 1901 while attending the Pan-American Exposition, then returned to Buffalo, where anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him that afternoon; he died eight days later.

Footage of the falls shot in 2006 appeared as the waterfall off the edge of the map in which 2007 film?

In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) the Black Pearl sails over the waterfall at the edge of the world, a sequence built on footage of Niagara Falls shot in 2006; Wonderfalls (2004) was also set there.

In which 2003 Jim Carrey comedy does the hero learn at Niagara Falls that his rival has been made anchorman?

In Bruce Almighty (2003) Bruce Nolan's on-air meltdown at the falls gets him fired, setting up his complaint to God; Steve Carell played the rival, Evan Baxter, who got the anchor job.

The 'Slowly I turned...' sketch, where 'Niagara Falls' triggers a rage, comes from which tradition?

'Slowly I turned' is a classic vaudeville and burlesque routine; Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges and others filmed versions, and I Love Lucy used a variant triggered by the name 'Martha'.

How much of the water flowing over the falls in summer goes over Horseshoe Falls?

About 90% of the river's flow goes over Horseshoe Falls, the rest over the American and Bridal Veil Falls; diversion to power stations is governed by the 1950 Niagara River Treaty, with far less flowing at night and in winter.

Theodosia Alston, who honeymooned at Niagara in 1801, was the daughter of which US vice-president?

Theodosia was the daughter of Aaron Burr, vice-president from 1801 to 1805; she and Joseph Alston are usually called Niagara's first honeymooners, and Napoleon's brother Jérôme followed with his bride Elizabeth Patterson in 1804.

The hard limestone and dolomite capping the Niagara Escarpment, over which the falls spill, date from which geological period?

Silurian-age limestone and dolomite of the Lockport Formation form the caprock, which erodes slower than the soft layers beneath, so the lip collapses in chunks.

Approximately how long is the Niagara River?

The Niagara River runs about 58 km (36 miles) from Lake Erie at Buffalo to Lake Ontario; Grand Island on the American side and Navy Island on the Canadian side are its two largest islands.

What was Niagara's Sir Adam Beck power station, the world's largest when it opened in 1922, originally called?

Opened in 1922 as the Queenston-Chippawa development, it was renamed for Ontario Hydro's founder Sir Adam Beck in 1950, the 25th anniversary of his death; water reaches it through a power canal from the Welland River.

The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, the oldest over the Niagara River, was renamed in what year?

The Lower Steel Arch Bridge of 1897 was renamed the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in 1937; the site's first crossing was Charles Ellet's 1848 suspension bridge, and the current bridge lies 1.6 km north of the Rainbow Bridge.

What was the real name of the Ontario showman 'The Great Farini', who rivalled Blondin over the gorge?

The Great Farini was William Hunt (William Leonard Hunt), raised in Ontario, who crossed the gorge on a wire in 1860 in rivalry with Blondin; he later invented the human cannonball act and explored the Kalahari.

In which year did Peter DeBernardi and Jeffery Petkovich go over Niagara Falls together in a barrel?

They were Niagara natives and the first 'team' to succeed. In 1985 Steve Trotter, aged 22, had become the youngest person to go over.

Which cartoon character tried to go over the falls in a barrel in the 1956 short Niagara Fools?

Niagara Fools (1956) is a Walter Lantz short in which Woody Woodpecker keeps trying to shoot the falls in a barrel while a park ranger tries to stop him.

Passengers on the Maid of the Mist are issued what blue garment against the spray?

Every Maid of the Mist rider is handed a poncho, a disposable blue one, while the Canadian-side boats hand out red ones; the spray at the base of Horseshoe Falls soaks passengers within seconds.

Niagara Falls State Park, the oldest state park in the United States, was signed into law in 1885 in which state?

New York's Niagara Reservation was signed into law on 30 April 1885 after a long letter-writing campaign; Ontario created its own Niagara Parks Commission the same year.

Which engineer's 1855 Niagara suspension bridge was the world's first working railway suspension bridge?

John A. Roebling, later designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, completed the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge in 1855, the world's first working railway suspension bridge; trains ran on its upper deck and carriages below.

What minimum daytime flow over the falls does the 1950 Niagara treaty require in tourist season?

The 1950 Niagara River Water Diversion Treaty guarantees at least 100,000 cubic feet per second (about 2,830 cubic metres) over the falls in daytime from April to October and 50,000 at other times; the rest is diverted for hydroelectricity.

Riverman Red Hill Jr. died in 1951 going over the falls in a craft of what?

Red Hill Jr., son of Niagara's famous riverman, went over Horseshoe Falls on 5 August 1951 in 'The Thing', a vessel of inner tubes lashed inside a net; it broke apart and his body was found the next day.

Who built a sawmill canal above the falls in 1750, the first known attempt to harness them?

Daniel Joncaire dug a small canal above the falls in 1750 to power his sawmill, the first known effort to harness them; Augustus and Peter Porter later bought the area and all of the American Falls in 1805.

Which waterway lets ships bypass Niagara Falls as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway?

The Welland Canal climbs the Niagara Escarpment with eight locks between Port Colborne on Lake Erie and Port Weller on Lake Ontario; the current canal opened in 1932 and became part of the Seaway in 1959.

In which year did Hornblower replace Maid of the Mist as the Canadian-side boat tour?

Hornblower Niagara Cruises began sailing from the Ontario shore in 2014 after the Niagara Parks Commission put the contract out to tender; Maid of the Mist continues from the New York side.