Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is the most widely known natural wonder in Amer­ica. It has been visited by a greater number of people from home and abroad than any other place on the continent. It is a familiar word the world over, and the place above all places in the United States that every visitor from foreign shores does want to see.

Niagara Falls is situated directly on the New York Central Lines, midway between New York and Chicago. It is reached from all directions by the through cars of the great railroad system.

Niagara is an Indian word which means "roaring waters". In­deed, the roar of the falling water can be heard within a distance of 25 km. Imagine a mass of water flowing over a cliff 90 feet high and you will get an idea of that terrible noise. And what tremendous power Niagara has! It can move big rocks about and throws them into the boiling waters below.

Niagara Falls is almost beyond description. Its beauty, majesty and power impress each beholder differently. The great features of Niagara are the same, again and again, but their individual expression is constantly changing. With every season, every sun­beam, every shadow, Niagara Falls takes on a different appear­ance, inspires a fresher interest, and compels new admiration years after years, generation after generation.

Only occasionally some great writer or thinker has caught the message of this mighty cataract and passed it down to us. Charles Dickens wrote of Niagara: "The first effect — the most enduring one — of the tremendous spectacle of Niagara Falls was peace. Peace of mind, tranquillity, great thoughts of eternal rest; noth­ing of gloom or terror. Niagara at once stamped upon my heart an image of beauty, to remain there changeless until its pulses cease to beat forever... "

Abraham Lincoln, the great martyr President of the United States, said of Niagara: "It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have been gazing on Niagara as ours do now. Niagara is as strong and fresh today as ten thousand years ago. The mammoths so long dead that fragments of their monstrous bone alone testify that they did live have been gazing on Niagara — in that long time never still for a single moment."

Aside from the scenic beauty of the Falls, the industrial devel­opment on both sides of the river will interest many tourists.

The development of electrical power has brought with it manu­facturing processes that were unknown a century ago. More than a million horse-power is being developed now at Niagara, both for local use and transmission to cities and towns in New York State and the Province of Ontario within a radius of 200 miles.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-03