Educators and Youth Group Leaders

Niagara Falls - Written By Abraham Lincoln

The following article on Niagara Falls, in Mr. Lincoln's handwriting, was found among his papers after his death:

"Niagara Falls! By what mysterious power is it that millions and millions are drawn from all parts of the world to gaze upon Niagara Falls? There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every effect is just as any intelligent man, knowing the causes, would anticipate without seeing it. If the water moving onward in a great river reaches a point where there is a perpendicular jog of a hundred feet in descent in the bottom of the river, it is plain the water will have a violent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also plain, the water, thus plunging, will foam and roar, and send up a mist continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be perpetual rainbows. The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. Yet this is really a very small part of that world's wonder. Its power to excite reflection and emotion is its great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn its way back to its present position; he will ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for determining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is at least fourteen thousand years old. A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say, 'Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which pours all the surplus water which rains down on two or three hundred thousand square miles of the earth's surface.' He will estimate with approximate accuracy that five hundred thousand tons of water fall with their full weight a distance of a hundred feet each minute--thus exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the same space, in the same time.

"But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent--when Christ suffered on the cross--when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea--nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Contemporary with the first race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastodon, so long dead that fragments of their monstrous bones alone testify that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara--in that long, long time never still for a single moment (never dried), never froze, never slept, never rested."

Falling for Niagara
by Megan Sever

Straddling the border between the United States and Canada is one of North America's most magnificent natural sites: Niagara Falls. Standing on either side, you can't help but be captivated by its beauty. Water plunges 17 stories from its crest to a swirling pool at its bottom. And at night, lights with ever-changing colors illuminating the falls are as mesmerizing as a lava lamp. Niagara Falls is a short 30-minute drive from Buffalo, N.Y., or a bit more than an hour's drive from Toronto, Canada. On the Canadian side, the town of Niagara Falls is quite developed, with countless hotels, restaurants, kitschy tourist shops, golf courses and amusement-park-style ways to enjoy the area, including behind-the-falls boat tours and helicopter tours. Science museums tell the glacial history of the region, and numerous park trails allow visitors access around the falls. For centuries, this tower of water has drawn travelers from afar, including families, honeymooners and daredevils who thought it was a good idea to go over the falls in a barrel. Niagara Falls is not just a natural beauty; it is a cultural icon.

But Niagara's wonder isn't limited to its water. If you truly want to appreciate the natural history of the area, hike through the Niagara Gorge Trail System on the U.S. side. Stop by one of the tourism offices to get a trail map or download one from the Web before you go. And bring sturdy shoes, as the hikes through this area can be steep and rocky. Traversing the trails is worth the trouble, however, as they provide exceptional snapshots of ancient life from the Ordovician period about 450 million years ago.

At night, the falls are lit up in a display as bright and colorful as New York's Times Square.

Shallow tropical seas once covered the area, along with most of North America, says Jorg Maletz, a geologist at the University of Buffalo, N.Y. Remnants of ancient life can be seen in geologic succession throughout Niagara Gorge, including such locations as Whirlpool State Park, the trails through the town of Lewiston, N.Y., and Devil's Hole, which used to be a waterfall and is now a dry, empty amphitheater that offers a terrific place to study how the force of waterfall can erode the rocks and soil around it, Maletz says.

Niagara Falls' 450-million-year-old red shale is topped by beach-type sandstone, overlain by successive layers of shale, sandstone and finally 440-million to 420-million-year-old dolomite, a hard carbonate rock. This dolomite is the "caprock," or top resistant layer, for Niagara Falls and contains a plethora of fossils, including everything from the seemingly ubiquitous trilobites to brachiopods, graptolites, echinoderms and other ancient marine critters. In fact, just a few minutes up the road in Lewiston is Art Park, where visitors can actually collect these fossils.

Compared to its stone and fossil foundation, Niagara Falls is pretty young. The falls, a remnant of the last glacial advance, have existed less than 12,500 years, Maletz says. Ontario and much of the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States were covered by ice sheets 2 to 3 kilometers (1 to 2 miles) thick about 18,000 years ago. As the glaciers moved south, they carved out huge depressions tens of kilometers wide. When the glaciers melted and retreated, their water filled the basins and they became the Great Lakes. By 12,500 years ago, the Niagara region was iceless and water began to flow from what was then Lake Erie into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River, which provides the only outlet for the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting waterfalls, although not the tallest falls in the United States and ranking somewhere around 500th tallest in the world, are renowned for their width and sheer volume of flowing water, the largest in the world.

The most powerful waterfalls in the world, Niagara Falls straddles the border between the United States and Canada

Niagara Falls is "a dramatic, spectacular sight," Maletz says. You should plan to see the falls from both the U.S. and the Canadian sides. The Canadian side, while far more developed, does offer the more impressive views, but the US side has far more opportunities to experience the Falls. The falls are made up of three separate waterfalls across the Niagara River: the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. Some 70 percent of the water flows over Horseshoe Falls, which stretches 670 meters (about 2,200 feet) across and accounts for two-thirds of the width of the falls. During peak tourist hours, roughly 168,000 cubic meters (six million cubic feet) of water pours over its crest every minute. This is 5,700 cubic meters, or more than 200,000 feet of water per second. The 1950 Niagara Treaty, which regulates water diversion over the falls, dictates that that peak water flow matches peak tourist hours. During nonpeak hours - after 10 p.m. during the summer or 8 p.m. in the fall - more water is diverted to the other users, including several hydropower plants.

While the water cascades over the falls and into the Niagara Gorge below, it quickly picks up speed, occasionally reaching 9 meters (30 feet) per second as it gushes into an area known as Whirlpool Rapids. These rapids stretch for about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) long beneath the falls, and end spectacularly in a churning whirlpool 518 meters (nearly 1,700 feet) long by 365 meters (about 1,200 feet) wide. Whirlpool State Park in New York offers good views, Maletz says. And for a fee, you can take a walk right down to this churning whitewater whirlpool.

One caveat before you travel, however: Don't plan for Niagara Falls to always be there, Maletz says. The falls are some of the fastest eroding waterfalls in the world, dissolving the soft shale beneath the dolomite at a pace of up to a half a meter every year. Eventually, the powerful water will have worn enough of the landscape that, without its stony base, the falls itself will disappear. But not to worry, that's not likely to happen for another 30,000 years or so, Maletz says. So brush up on your Ordovician and Silurian critters, grab a hiking map and some sturdy boots, and pack everyone up for a trip. The 15 million people who admire Niagara Falls each year can't be wrong.