[Wolfram]

These pictures are from when they diverted the flow of water over the American side of the falls to do delay the gradual erosion on the falls.

It's taken 41 years, but a previously unseen set of photos of the mighty Niagara Falls reduced to nothing more than a barren cliff-top have finally surfaced.

The stark images reveal North America's iconic - and most powerful - waterfall to be almost as dry as a desert.

In June 1969, U.S. engineers diverted the flow of the Niagara River away from the American side of the falls for several months.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z18OdItZ4O

 

[RedDawnTheMusical]

Stark: A completely dry Niagara Falls has never been seen before or since the six months in July 1969 when U.S. engineers set about restructuring the American side of the twin landmark.

Ok - I give - How did they fit six months into July?

 

[Campeck1911]

The falls have been eroding for the past 12,000 yrs. 6 months ain't gunna stop it...

 

[mpc]

Stark: A completely dry Niagara Falls has never been seen before or since the six months in July 1969 when U.S. engineers set about restructuring the American side of the twin landmark.

Ok - I give - How did they fit six months into July?

It was funded by the government.

 

[RedDawnTheMusical]

Stark: A completely dry Niagara Falls has never been seen before or since the six months in July 1969 when U.S. engineers set about restructuring the American side of the twin landmark.

Ok - I give - How did they fit six months into July?

It was funded by the government.

:banghead: Oh man - I should have been able to figure that one out for myself...

 

[gunsmoker]

Three Brief Comments:

1-- The main part of Niagara Falls is on the Canadian side-- the "horseshoe falls". They didn't get turned off.

2-- But the horseshoe falls has had a lot less water going over the edge since they have been diverting massive amounts of water from the upper Niagara river through tunnels and through turbines that generate electricity.
(I don't know when they started diverting the water to make power, but it's been generations.)

3-- I always thought a good government make-work program to create jobs and spend federal money in that part of New York would be to outlaw Niagara Falls under the EPA, because it kills some of the fish when they fall over the cliff. So we would replace the falls with a bucket brigade, scooping the water out of Lake Erie and passing the buckets down several miles of road, hand-to-hand, and the gently pouring them into the lower Niagara not far from Lake Ontario.
:lol:

 

[atlsrt44]

Three Brief Comments:

1-- The main part of Niagara Falls is on the Canadian side-- the "horseshoe falls". They didn't get turned off.

2-- But the horseshoe falls has had a lot less water going over the edge since they have been diverting massive amounts of water from the upper Niagara river through tunnels and through turbines that generate electricity.
(I don't know when they started diverting the water to make power, but it's been generations.)
3-- I always thought a good government make-work program to create jobs and spend federal money in that part of New York would be to outlaw Niagara Falls under the EPA, because it kills some of the fish when they fall over the cliff. So we would replace the falls with a bucket brigade, scooping the water out of Lake Erie and passing the buckets down several miles of road, hand-to-hand, and the gently pouring them into the lower Niagara not far from Lake Ontario.
:lol:

"Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse built the first hydro-electric power plant in 1895 in Niagara Falls and started the electrification of the world"

 

[RedDawnTheMusical]

Yup - Westinghouse saw Tesla's vision of being able to distribute electricity over large distances using alternating current (AC). Everyone else at the time was buying into Edison's model of DC power distribution, which can't travel over any significant distance without substantial loss, requiring a battery station within a mile of the homes it needed to send power to. Telsa gave us not only the concept of AC power, but all of the cool stuff that goes with it: step-up transformers, step-down transformers, AC motors, generators (like the ones he built for Niagara falls), substations for creating power grids, etc.