The power of Niagara inspired the creation of the world’s first large-scale hydroelectric power plant. Another first was the generation of this power as alternating current, developed by Nikolas Tesla, which is now the world standard for commercial and domestic electricity. Tesla’s commemorative statue above is worth reproducing as the basis for today’s quiz. Question: what is he doing? Is he engaged upon the business of the day whilst reading a copy of The Sun? If so, where is the cup of tea at his feet and the loo-roll? All blog comments gratefully received.
This looks like a futuristic block of flats, but it’s the feeder control for the US-side power station. The USA and Canada share Niagara’s water equally, and between them extract half of the river flow into huge tunnels that fill turbine reservoirs four miles downstream. So the mega falls of Niagara is only working at 50% capacity!
Going downstream from the falls a couple of miles there are some killer rapids, the highest grade of difficulty, grade 6, and are out of bounds for white water activities. It was here that Captain Mathew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel, was drowned in his attempt to swim the length of the Niagara River (36 miles long, connecting lake Erie to Lake Ontario). The rapids then feed into a giant whirlpool, so you’ve got no chance.
There are some beautifully maintained gardens on the Canadian side of the Niagara Gorge. Here is an example, the floral clock. A new planting layout is created each season, which they are so proud of that there is a small exhibition of pictures of all previous years’ schemes. The similarity to a pizza menu is remarkable.
Canadian law allows casinos, New York State’s doesn’t. Niagara is in New York State, so all the gamblers went to Canadian Niagara and the American side lost tourist revenue. That was until someone had a bright idea. Native Americans have been treated so shabbily in the past that, as a sop to the nation’s conscience, they now have some legal recognition of their separate identity, for example, self-government in Tribal Reservations. Right, so let’s put the casino in a Tribal Reservation and then it’s outside of New York State law. Consequently, the casino, shown below, is now successfully run by the Seneca Indians, and everybody’s happy.
To get back to everyday USA, the lovely scene underneath was around the corner from the campsite, where we went for an evening stroll. To us, it was just as beautiful as Niagara in its own way although maybe not as jaw-dropping.
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