Open Road — Guides — Railroads — Canals — Bridges 



Canada side, are seen. But the rapids are seen to the greatest 1828 

 advantage from Goat Island, to which a very ingeniously con- Stuart 

 structed and strong rough bridge has been thrown on the Ameri- 

 can side, over great blocks of rock and rapids. 



There is no difficulty in getting to these stations. To Table 

 Rock, the way across the field from the hotel is without any 

 difficulty; and there is a winding path to facilitate the descent 

 of about 300 feet to the boat. The water is a good deal agi- 

 tated at the point, about 1 ,200 yards in width, where the boat 

 crosses, but the boatman's knowledge of the eddies enables him 

 to pass with perfect safety in ten or fifteen minutes. Passengers 

 must, however, lay their account with something like a drenching 

 from the spray of the falls in crossing, and should be well pro- 

 vided with great coats. There is a steep wooden stair from the 

 landing-place, to the top of the bank on the American side. . . . 



1829 



STONE, WILLIAM LEETE. From New York to Niagara. Journal 1829 

 of a tour, in part by the Erie canal, in the year 1 829. (Pub. Buff. hist. Stone 

 soc. 1910. 14:238-2411.) 



We left Lockport in a mail coach at half past 1 . Our tra- 

 velling companions hence to Lewiston, were a boisterous gang of 

 Universal Suffrage Jackson men, on their way to attend the 

 exhibition got up by the hotel-keepers at the Falls, to collect a 

 crowd of customers in a dull season. Our road was across to 

 the " Ridge Road," which we did not reach until within two 

 miles of Lewiston, was over a new country, some of the way 

 almost entirely unsettled. The land was higher than for the 

 last hundred miles, and the soil apparently somewhat inferior. 

 But the forests were yet more lofty and imposing. Oaks and occa- 

 sionally sycamores of immense size, now mingled with the tower- 

 ing maples and elms. We passed through a section of the Indian 

 reserved lands, partially settled by a portion of the Tuscarora 

 tribe of Indians. These improved lands, with a very few excep- 

 tions, appeared in a sad state of neglected cultivation. For several 

 miles, while traversing the northern verge of this mountain ridge, 



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