Niagara Falls May Not Be Falling Soon

The scene back in 1969
(Courtesy news.nationalgeographic.com)

From the Brady photo album

I read with interest this week the news that Niagara Falls (on the American side) may be briefly “turned off” again as it was back in 1969. The reason this time is that some bridges over the Falls need to be repaired. Here’s the story as reported in the Buffalo News in case you missed it.

I did a post (back here) on my family’s 1969 visit to Niagara Falls to see them “dry.” It’s something that I’ll never forget, as it was a big deal. We did it as a day trip and even brought Grandma along.

It’s strange to think that at this point that “once-in-a-lifetime” event is going to happen for the second time. I’d certainly be tempted to make the road trip to see it again.

For those of you that might not be able to make the trip this time, here’s a short YouTube video with footage showing the Falls as it looked back in that summer of 1969.

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Strangely enough, it was only last week that I happened to be watching a Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD (now you know my tastes in entertainment) and one of the cartoons was a Dudley Do-Right episode in which the evil Snidely Whiplash dammed up the Falls on the Canadian side.

Why did he dam the Falls? Because he hoped to make a financial killing by selling Florida tickets to Canadian honeymooners that were disappointed with the dry Falls.

Whoever designed the cartoon for Ward Productions seemed to base their drawings of the Falls on the American Falls, however. Here’s how the dry Canadian Falls were depicted in the cartoon.

And here’s a photo of the American Falls for reference.

Anyway, by the end of the Dudley episode, everything was back to normal and Niagara Falls were falling once again.

Hey, you can watch this cartoon right here (below)!