Niagara — Historical and Reminiscent 



abutments to a height of eighty feet, extending away up into the 1900 

 steel work of the arch, pieces of which were bent. So immense 

 was the jam of ice that gangs of men were set to work on both 

 sides of the river blasting the ice from about the abutments in 

 order that those structures might not suffer. The men who did 

 this work found that the ice was many feet thick below the 

 water-level. They also found that, owing to the strange forma- 

 tion of the ice-bridge, the operation of blasting had to be repeated 

 several times. During the last summer the abutments of the 

 arch have had protective walls built about them to assure their 

 safety in times of similar ice-jams. 



There is no little gratification in the thought that the forming 

 of an ice-jam at Niagara does not necessarily mean the loss of 

 life and the destruction of homes and other property. On the 

 Niagara River from the point of formation to Lake Ontario, the 

 banks are sufficiently high to prevent a flood and to conduct the 

 ice and water safely to the lake. But some of the ice-bridges 

 at the falls have wrought damage. It was on January 1 5th that 

 the first bridge of 1 883 formed, and on January 22d the second 

 bridge came. With the coming of this second bridge in 1883 

 there was a great rush of ice. The water in the lower river was 

 very high and about one hundred feet of the inclined railway 

 building was carried away. At that time in order to reach the 

 surface of the ice-bridge it was found necessary to excavate a 

 tunnel eight feet high, fifteen feet wide and twenty-five feet long 

 through the ice. Naturally, this tunnel added to the interest of 

 a visit, and the wrecking of the incline building excited the 

 curiosity of thousands. The bridge lasted thirteen weeks, and 

 the crowds were tremendous. The night the bridge formed, a 

 house on the Canadian side of the river, near the water's edge, 

 and occupied by John McCloy and family, was carried from its 

 foundations and tipped over. 



No matter how far up toward the Horseshoe Fall a bridge 

 may form in its early stages, it usually breaks away until its 

 upper line is straight with the lower edge of the American Fall, 

 but great masses of ice hold fast to either shore above that point. 



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