Niagara Falls Was America's Honeymoon Capital — What Happened Here?

In June 1969, engineers dammed the Niagara River and the American Falls went dry, and about one hundred thousand people came that first week just to stare at bare rock. Only four years earlier, TIME had counted roughly thirty-two thousand newlyweds arriving at Niagara every year. Today the city of Niagara Falls, New York, has fewer than half the people it had in 1960. This is the story of how America's honeymoon capital earned its title and how the city on the American side lost it. It starts with Theodosia Burr's bridal tour in 1801 and runs through the Erie Canal, the Cataract House and its Underground Railroad staff, Oscar Wilde's real verdict on the falls, the Free Niagara campaign, the Honeymoon Special trains, and Marilyn Monroe's Niagara. Then come three dates that changed everything: a power station falling into the gorge, a downtown torn down for a plan that never arrived, and a presidential emergency order for a neighborhood called Love Canal. The water never ran out, and the visitors never stopped coming. So why did the honeymooners leave, and where were most of them really sleeping, even at the height of the boom? 0:00 The Day the Falls Stopped 2:02 The Bridal Tour 5:22 Free Niagara 8:32 A Name in the Papers 12:02 Mr. and Mrs. Niagara Honeymoon 15:02 The Other Side of the River 17:31 The Day the Gorge Moved 21:02 The Rainbow Center 25:35 Love Canal 27:31 The Water and the City Niagara Falls Was America's Honeymoon Capital — What Happened Here? Before Cancún and Las Vegas, America had other playgrounds. Hollywood honeymooned in Acapulco. The mob ran Havana's casinos. Families filled the Catskills every summer. Then, one by one, they emptied out. America's Lost Playgrounds tells the rise and fall of the resorts, hotels, casinos and vacation towns where Americans once went to have fun — at home and just across the border. Every episode is an investigation: real dates, real names, archive photos and the story behind the decline. 🏨 Legendary hotels and resorts 🎰 Casinos and mob-era playgrounds 🌴 Hollywood's Mexico and Cuba 🎢 Forgotten beach towns and amusement parks 📅 New episodes every Tuesday and Friday Subscribe if you want to know where America used to go — and why nobody goes there anymore.