A Niagara Falls Power Plant Sprang a Leak in 1956. Seven Hours Later the Cliff Buried It

On June 7, 1956, the Schoellkopf Power Station, the largest power plant on the American side of Niagara Falls, began to leak at about 10:25 in the morning. Crews stacked sandbags beside nineteen running generators for almost seven hours. Shortly after five o'clock the gorge wall above the plant came down with forty men inside. This film follows the record of that day: the canal bought at auction for $71,000, the pipes bored through the cliff, the warnings, the one door a foreman left open, and the cause that was never officially declared. Chapters 0:00 June 7, 1956: half an hour 0:45 A canal bought for $71,000 2:29 Pipes bored through the cliff 4:35 Water in the gorge wall 6:33 The leak, the door, the collapse 13:01 What made the cliff fall 15:50 Who got Niagara's power 18:24 The ruin today