Something About New York’s Niagara Falls No Longer Makes Sense

In June 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did something that sounds impossible: they turned off the American Falls at Niagara. For five months, a 100-foot wall of bare rock stood where the water should be. As the river drained, police recovered two bodies, and engineers made a discovery that changed how they saw the falls. That’s only the beginning. Niagara Falls is walking upstream, about seven miles in 12,000 years. Its cliffs are bolted together with steel. Every night, under a 1950 treaty, the flow over the falls is cut in half so power plants can use the water. In 1848, an ice jam shut the falls off naturally. And New York’s plan to replace the Goat Island bridges could mean turning the American Falls off again. In this video, we follow the evidence from the Army Corps of Engineers’ 1969 study, the 1950 Niagara River treaty, the 1954 Prospect Point collapse, and the geology of the Niagara Gorge. 0:00 The Day the Roar Stopped 0:55 The Niagara Falls You Think You Know 1:30 The Waterfall That’s Walking Away 4:00 The Army Turns It Off 8:00 Niagara’s Nightly Dimmer Switch 10:00 Could It Be Turned Off Again? 11:20 What Niagara Falls Really Is Sources include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 1969 American Falls study, the 1950 Niagara River Water Diversion Treaty, the New York State Museum, and New York State Parks’ American Falls Bridges assessment. Which American landmark should I investigate next? Tell me in the comments, and subscribe for more places where the official story doesn’t quite hold up. #NiagaraFalls #Geology #NewYork