NIAGARA FALLS AND RIVER 



NIAGARA FALLS AND RIVER 



once more a gentle slope, and the waters flow 

 quietly along the Ontario plain for the last 

 seven miles of their course. 



The Whirlpool Cableway. Next to the Falls 

 themselves, the Whirlpool holds for the tourist 

 more fascination than any other of the wonders 

 of the Niagara region. Visitors may now enjoy 

 a safe but thrilling trip across the maelstrom 



i , for there was completed in 1916 an aerial 

 cableway reaching from Colt's Point to Thomp- 

 fa Point on the opposite bank, both ter- 

 minals being in the Canadian province of On- 

 tario. This cableway is patterned after one 

 used in transporting passengers across a gorge 

 at San Sebastian, Spain, and the enterprise was 

 financed by Spanish capitalists. The Niagara 

 aerial cable is the only one of its kind in North 

 America. The passenger car, which provides 

 seating space for twenty-four persons and 

 standing room for twenty-one others, besides 

 the conductor, is suspended from a running 

 gear which travels on six parallel track cables. 

 Each cable is entirely independent of the oth- 

 ers, so the breaking of one cable will in no 

 wise endanger the lives of the passengers. The 

 car is ten feet, ten inches wide, twenty-four feet 

 long and twenty-three feet high, and is pro- 

 pelled by a steel traction cable. It is also 

 equipped with a five-horse-power gasoline en- 

 gine to be used in case of emergency. Various 

 other appliances h:ivc been installed, insuring 



passengers the highest possible degree of 

 safety. This remarkable tramway is 1,800 feet 

 long. To construct it across the gorge its pro- 

 moters had to secure permission from the 



LOCATION OP AERIAL, CABLEWAY 

 :poo1 la above the cablew.i 



In the illtiM i- disappear* In t 



towards Lake Ontario, about five mil* -s 



i States and New York st.v 



of On- 



M.l tin- Victoria Park Commission of 

 ra Falls. 

 265 



Origin of the Niagara Region. Geologists 

 have shown that this magnificent natural spec- 

 tacle had its origin after the withdrawal of the 

 last great ice sheet, which had so modified the 

 surface of the land that the watercourses were 



BRIDGE BELOW THE FALLS 

 One of the great suspension bridges spanning 

 Niagara River. The Falls art- in the background. 



forced to trace new channels (see GLACIAL PE- 

 RIOD). The Niagara River since then has been 

 working backwards. The age of the gorge has 

 been the subject of much speculation among 

 scientists, and for an excellent reason. If tin 

 time taken by the Niagara River to cut its 

 ledge back from the escarpment at Lewiston 

 to the present position of the cataract could be 

 determined, geologists could speak much more 

 confidently of the duration of geologic periods; 

 that is, they could compare them more exactly 

 with human chronology. As it is, the age of 

 the gorge can only be conjectured, but ^ 



believe that it cannot be less than 20,000 

 years old. If the flow had been constant and 

 the rock through which it cut of uniform thick- 

 ness and hardness, the period of the n 

 labors would be easier to fix, for it is known 

 that the cliff has been worn back 335 feet in 

 sixty-three years. But earlier formations were 

 not like the present material, so the rate of 

 cutting cannot be accurately determined. At 

 the present time the ledge at the Horseshoe 

 Falls is being worn back about five feet each 

 year. The cutting at the American Falls is 

 much slower, estimates as to the rate varying 

 between two-tenths and six-truths of a foot a 

 year. 



The Falls are formed by an outcropping layer 

 of hard limestone about right y iV< t thick. Un- 

 Imit iih tin- upper layer are softer alternating 

 layers of limestone, shale and sandstone, the 

 whole resting on a bed of soft shale. The top 

 layer of limestone projects in a ledge, and 

 below this the rock is hollowed out so that it is 

 possible, as in the Cave of the Winds, to pan 

 behind small segments of th f ; ills. Spray and 

 dashed constantly against the base of 

 thr diff, and it is supposed they have worn it 



" ^ - 



Parks. Niagara has long oontinued to attract 

 its thousands, of visitors anm . its scenic 



