60 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?

The river is only about 58 km long and is sometimes described as a strait rather than a river. It carries the outflow of four of the five Great Lakes.

Niagara Falls formed when glaciers retreated at the end of which ice age?

Meltwater from the newly formed Great Lakes carved its way over the Niagara Escarpment on the way to the Atlantic. The features that became the falls are only about 10,000 years old.

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

Toronto is 69 km away in the other direction, and the falls sit between two twin cities that both carry the name Niagara Falls.

Visits to the falls surged in 1953 after the release of the thriller Niagara, starring which actress?

It was a rare film noir shot in Technicolor, and it gave her top billing for the first time. Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters co-starred.

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

It began life as a border-crossing ferry and is named after a supposed Ongiara legend. Since 2020 the American boats have run on lithium-ion batteries.

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

Clark rescues a boy who tumbles over the railing, which makes Lois suspicious enough to throw herself into the river to test him. The scene was one of the film's newly written additions.

Which sitcom couple got married at Niagara Falls in a 2009 episode titled 'Niagara'?

The Office episode aired on NBC on 8 October 2009. Jim accidentally lets slip that Pam is pregnant, and the pair sneak off to marry privately on the boat before the church ceremony.

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

Contrary to rumours, the animal survived, and posed with Taylor for photographs afterwards. Taylor herself climbed in with a lucky heart-shaped pillow.

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

She was a schoolteacher hoping the stunt would fund her retirement. On climbing out she said, '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?

Other crossings were made blindfolded, in a sack, on stilts and pushing a wheelbarrow. His wire ran across the gorge near the site of today's Rainbow Bridge, not over the waterfall itself.

Blondin's hardest crossing, on 14 August 1859, involved carrying whom on his back?

Harry Colcord reportedly begged him to stop halfway. Blondin's final crossing in 1860 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?

The live ABC special followed a two-year legal battle for permission on both sides of the border. His rope was 550 metres long.

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

He needed special permission from both governments. The last tightrope crossings of the gorge had been part of a Victorian daredevil craze that ended in the 1890s.

In which year did the only recorded complete freeze-up of the river and falls occur?

An ice jam upstream choked off the flow on 29 March that year. In 1912 the American Falls froze solid, but the other two kept flowing.

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

Engineers wanted to study the huge pile of rock at the base and see whether it could be removed. The plan was abandoned as too expensive, and the dam was dynamited in November.

By flow rate, Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall on which continent?

The peak flow ever recorded there was 6,370 cubic metres per second. Worldwide the combined falls rank about seventh for flow.

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

Since forming near Queenston and Lewiston about 10,900 years ago, the falls have already retreated some 10.9 km southward. Hydro diversion has slowed the erosion considerably.

Roughly how tall is Horseshoe Falls?

The American Falls is only 21 to 30 metres because giant boulders piled at its base cut the drop short. Horseshoe Falls is about 790 metres wide.

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

The current name comes from John Stedman, an early miller who kept a herd of goats there. Luna Island is the sliver of land between the American and Bridal Veil Falls.

The first written description of the falls, in 1677, is credited to a missionary of which nationality?

Father Louis Hennepin had been travelling with the explorer La Salle. A French Jesuit, Paul Ragueneau, had probably seen the falls some 35 years earlier.

The Native American word Ongiara, one proposed source of the name Niagara, means what?

Other theories trace the name to an Iroquois town called Onguiaahra, 'point of land cut in two', or to a Mohawk word for the neck of land between the two lakes.

What has been stranded on the rocks above the falls since August 1918?

The two men aboard were rescued, but the vessel is still visible in a rusting state. A storm on Halloween 2019 shifted it about 50 metres.

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

The Rainbow Bridge stands just downriver from the falls and offers the closest view of them from any crossing. The oldest bridge over the river is the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.

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

The tower opened in 1965 and stands 160 metres above street level. Because it is so close to the border, both Canadian and US aviation authorities had to approve it.

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

Leonardo Torres Quevedo also built early chess-playing automata and airships. The car has been upgraded several times, most recently in 2023.

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

Some 19,800 tonnes of chemical byproducts lay beneath the site. The resulting 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?

The Canadian city itself was formed in 1904 when the town and the village of Niagara Falls amalgamated. Its 2021 population was about 94,000.

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

It used Nikola Tesla's AC patents, which is why a statue of Tesla stands on Goat Island today. The Adams Power Plant Transformer House survives as a landmark.

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 Central Park designer led the 1885 campaign to preserve the falls as a public reservation?

The Free Niagara movement also included the painter Frederic Edwin Church. In the 1870s tourists often had to pay just to glimpse the falls through the fences.

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

His boat lost power upstream. His 17-year-old sister was pulled from the water just six metres from the brink, and he was plucked from the plunge pool by a tour boat crew.

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

He was spotted near Terrapin Point shortly after 5 pm. Every earlier survivor had used a barrel or similar container.

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

She was 23 at the time and repeated the walk with peach baskets strapped to her feet. Her wire, like Blondin's, crossed the gorge rather than the falls.

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

He survived the leap. Nearly a century later Charles Stephens, a barber from Bristol, became the first person to die going over in a barrel.

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

His barrel was hoisted to the rafters for a 55-metre drop into a water tank, released early, and struck the tank's rim. He died the next day.

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

Ice bridges at the base of the falls were once used to walk across the river before proper bridges existed; the one in 1841 was said to be 30 metres thick.

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

Guided tours began in 1841. The cave itself was destroyed in a 1954 rockfall, but the name lives on for the walkways beneath Bridal Veil Falls.

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

It sits in the Clifton Hill tourist district. The Niagara Parks Commission runs a separate butterfly conservatory along the parkway.

In which year did Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario permanently close to the public?

Founder John Holer died in 2018 and his widow ran it until her own death in 2024. Its final season had no rides operating.

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

An IMAX film called Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic also played at the falls for years, and the short-lived 2004 TV series Wonderfalls was set in the tourist complex.

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

Bruce's on-air meltdown at the falls gets him fired, which sets up his complaint to God. Steve Carell played the rival, Evan Baxter.

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

Abbott and Costello and other comedy teams did versions. I Love Lucy fans know a variant triggered by the name 'Martha'.

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

Water diversion to power stations is governed by the 1950 Niagara River Treaty and controlled by a weir with movable gates upstream. Far less flows at night and in winter.

The first recorded couple to honeymoon at Niagara, in 1801, was Theodosia Alston and her husband; she was the daughter of which US vice-president?

Napoleon's brother Jérôme visited with his bride soon after. After the Civil War a railroad company marketed the falls as the honeymoon destination.

The Niagara Escarpment is capped by limestone and dolomite from which geological period?

The escarpment runs in a great arc from the Niagara region through Ontario and Michigan into Wisconsin. The hard caprock erodes slower than the soft layers beneath, so the lip collapses in chunks.

Approximately how long is the Niagara River?

Grand Island on the American side and Navy Island on the Canadian side are its two largest islands. Its whole course lies between two Great Lakes.

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

It was renamed in 1950 on the 25th anniversary of Adam Beck's 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 very first crossing at the site was a suspension bridge opened to the public in the 1840s. 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?

Farini went on to a long career in circus and exploration, and later claimed to have invented the human cannonball act.

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?

Real barrel riders were still at it: Steve Trotter went over in 1985 at just 22, the youngest ever.

Niagara Falls has long been famous as a destination for which kind of trip?

After the Second World War the car industry and local tourist boards pushed the idea hard, and it had already been a railway-marketed romance spot since the 1860s.

Which state or province operates the oldest state park in the United States, at the falls?

The 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.

What separates Bridal Veil Falls from the American Falls?

Goat Island divides Bridal Veil from Horseshoe Falls; both islands lie in New York State.

Where does Niagara rank among the world's waterfalls by flow rate?

It is the highest-flow waterfall in North America, with more than 168,000 cubic metres a minute going over the crest at peak tourist hours.

About 10,900 years ago, the falls lay between Lewiston, New York and which Ontario village?

Erosion of the crest has since moved the falls roughly 10.9 kilometres southward.

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

Augustus and Peter Porter later bought the area and all of the American Falls; Schoellkopf's firm led the hydroelectric push in the 1890s.

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

It was improved and folded into the Seaway in the mid-1950s, diverting water traffic from nearby Buffalo.

Roughly how many visitors does Niagara Falls receive each year?

Summer is the peak period, and floodlights from the Canadian side illuminate both sides of the falls after dusk.