This Is What Scientists Found at the Bottom of the Niagara Falls That Left Them so Disturbed

“This is what scientists found at the bottom of Niagara Falls that left them so disturbed.

Back in the summer of 1969, a group of engineers had found the long-hidden secret of Niagara Falls. The moment they realized how to stop them from flowing, they ventured upon succeeding in it. Yet, no one was afraid of the unknown from beneath, and they should have been.

You might think this was a mission impossible: to stem the flow of Niagara Falls. But for these scientists, nothing was impossible. So then, in 1969, its hidden gems were about to get revealed. Keep watching to find out what these scientists discovered.

Whether you first saw the Niagara Falls in person or in a video, you were surely amazed by its vastness. Now, millions of tourists visit it every year and post their pictures on social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Many of them even write blogs and make vlogs about the falls, explaining their personal impressions and excitement.

Surely, words cannot describe everything, nor can a camera depict the real sensations one can get at the actual site. So everyone should visit Niagara Falls at least once in their lives.

Still, the site wasn’t as amazing five decades ago when the scientists decided to investigate it. When scientists decided to look behind the scenes of Niagara Falls, they had no clue what might be dwelling underneath.

The moment they announced their plans, the public eye was set upon them. Many people wanted to witness this extraordinary moment in history. Tempering nature is always a challenge, so many wondered if these people could really do it. Were their plans based on real possibilities or just wishful thinking?

Still, the moment the amount of water in the fall started to recede, these spectators’ trust in scientists started to grow. Back in the past—well, about 18,000 years in the past, to be precise—Niagara Falls didn’t exist. They were formed when ice sheets came from the North Pole, leaving behind the great areas of landscape known as North America.

It was not until the huge chunks of ice melted that the falls came into existence. Upon the melting of the glaciers, the vast amount of water was sent into the Niagara River. The falls didn’t form immediately; a lot of time had to pass to let the water erode the cliffs and thus form the falls as we know them today.

Today, Niagara Falls stands as a natural border between two similar but very different countries: Canada and the United States. Even though they’ve been visited by many people from around the world, it’s not known how long ago they started getting their visitors.

Maybe it was thousands of years ago or even much earlier than that. We can only assume that the locals were enjoying their beauties long before the world found out about them. There are no written records about their first visitors nor about the first domestic admirers.

What’s actually known is that many different indigenous communities lived in their neighborhood. There are written records saying that the first person from Europe who heard about Niagara Falls was an explorer from France named Samuel de Champlain. That was somewhere at the beginning of the 17th century.

Still, he was not the first one from Europe to go there and visit the falls. On the other hand, not until 1678 did anyone from Europe go and see the falls in person. The man that did that was Father Louis Hennepin, who went to Niagara Falls in search of New France. At least, that was the name they gave to this part of North America.

Five years after he returned from the falls, Father Louis Hennepin put his thoughts and impressions on paper. He wrote a “New Discovery” article in which the name of the falls first appeared. So basically, as a term, Niagara Falls came into existence in the year 1683.

The name came from the word “Ongiara,” an Iroquoian word which actually means “the strait.” Upon publishing this article, Father Louis Hennepin became famous as the first person from Europe who saw Niagara Falls.

After that, many visitors from Europe came to see the beauty they read about. Not until the 1800s did Niagara Falls become a tourist destination. So basically, about 200 years after its discovery, the first tourists from Europe came to see and admire the vastness of the amazing waterfalls.

At this time, the first serious business people, hoteliers mostly, realized the full potential of the place. So, they started making lucrative investments on the land around the waterfalls.

Even at its beginning as a tourist destination, Niagara Falls lured honeymooning couples to its site, and it’s remained a favorite destination of newlywed couples even today. The only difference is that in the 1800s, there were few places where people could spend their money, and today everything’s overpriced.

Not only did the people who wanted to enjoy their free time and relax a bit come to Niagara Falls. No, even serious industrialists had seen the good side of the site. They realized a huge potential the falls had and still have even today.

They realized they could make use of the waterfall to power their factories and also their mills. At the end of the 19th century, the world’s first hydroelectric generating station was built near Niagara Falls. It soon started producing a great amount of electricity, which could be put into use.

Even though the new hydroelectric generating station was a revolutionary invention, it wasn’t able to carry electricity to long distances, only up to 300 feet. This was not a good thing, so something had to be improved. But no one knew how.

One day, Nikola Tesla came and made a huge impact on the world we know today. What does this actually mean? Well, this man found a way to send electricity to long distances by the use of alternating current. At first, as an experiment, the electricity was sent as far as Buffalo, New York, about 20 miles distance from the power plant.

Even though this invention was made more than 100 years ago, it still works the way it did at the time Tesla lived. It’s as important today as it was in previous entries. After all, what electricity is better than the electricity produced from renewable sources?

Today, these waterfall power plants produce more than 2 million kilowatts of power. In this century, it’s become even more significant than in previous centuries since the cities have become overpopulated and polluted. Only the energy produced from renewable sources like water, wind, the sun can save us from our own destructive nature.

Since Niagara Falls is a natural border between Canada and the USA, it naturally belongs to both countries. From both sides, it gets more than 15 million tourists per year or more than 30 million tourists in total yearly. So basically, both countries share the benefits these waterfalls provide to them.

At the falls, six million cubic feet run down in one minute. Amazing, right? Just imagine what damage could that much water make if led outside the falls. It could ruin entire cities.

You know the saying goes: water and fire are dangerous servants but fearful masters. Believe it or not, the amount of water in Niagara Falls changes during nights. It happens that there’s less water in the falls during nights. How’s that possible, you might wonder?

Well, because of the human factor. It’s not something that happens normally and naturally. In fact, this situation is such that the local companies are allowed to take more water from the falls at night. Back in the 1950s, a treaty was signed allowing local companies to take more water at night because there are not many tourists there, and even those who come to the site would notice the difference.

Do you wonder what happens with the falls during cold winter months? Can a waterfall freeze when the temperatures fall below zero degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit?

Actually, the falls partially freeze at some places, but the flow never stops, at least not because of low temperatures, that’s for sure. One other thing that happens during the winter months but also during other seasons is that a certain amount of water turns into clouds of vapor.

Have you seen that sight when there’s water only at the upper part of the falls, and beneath, there are only huge clouds? It’s amazing. Even though technically speaking, Niagara Falls belongs to both Canada and the USA, there are some parts of it that belong only to the United States of America: the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls are solely American parts of Niagara Falls.

On the other hand, there is no part that belongs only to the Canadian side. The biggest part that actually represents the natural border between the countries is called Horseshoe Falls.

On which side of the border have you been while visiting Niagara Falls? Only people who visit Niagara Falls often can see the changes this waterfall experiences during time. With every new gallon of water that goes down the cliffs, the falls lose a bit of its charm. Well, at least that’s according to the citizens of New York who live near the falls and visit them regularly.

For every new visitor of the site, the falls have been astonishingly beautiful, whether it was a hundred years ago or a day ago. Still, there is the problem that some stones accumulate at the falls’ bottom, which might cause some problems in the future.

Since the concerns of the New York citizens living at the falls reached both American and Canadian authorities, an organization that takes care of the shared waters was contacted. The name of that organization is the International Joint Commission.

Since the Americans were concerned about the American Falls, they were those who suggested that something had to be done with the accumulated rocks at the bottom of the waterfalls. Even the US Army Corps of Engineers was asked for their expert opinion on the matter.

Since there were no other solutions for the problem of the accumulated rocks at the bottom of the cataract, the engineers decided to shut it down. Well, this was just temporary until they removed all the stones and earth from beneath the water.

In the summer of 1969, more than one thousand trucks carried rocks and earth to the falls just to stop the flow and to clear the area beneath the cliffs. The loads were being dumped upstream of the waterfalls for three days. Did they succeed in stopping Niagara Falls from flowing? Let’s see.

A cofferdam was a temporary structure the engineers made at Niagara Falls between the mainland and Goat Island. It was constructed of 27,000 tons of rock and earth brought to the site by around 1,200 trucks. The total length of the structure was 600 feet or 182.88 meters.

Did these loads of rock and earth stop the water going towards the falls? Did the water perhaps flood the island between the Horseshoe and Bridal Veil Falls called Goat Island? Let’s see what happens next.

As you can see from the picture, the engineers did succeed in their endeavors to prevent water from going towards the American Falls. The water was redirected from there towards the Horseshoe Falls, thus the waters that were tumbling down the cliffs of Niagara Falls were silenced for some time.

Actually, only the waters of the American Falls were stopped because it wasn’t possible to stop the whole Niagara Falls at the same time. We already realized there are three different waterfalls within Niagara Falls, so that enormous amount of water had to go somewhere.

There were two main concerns the locals had regarding this operation. First of all, they were afraid of the waters because it’s always dangerous to block the natural path a river has. So what if the waters didn’t obey and flooded their land?

The second concern was about the tourists. They were afraid that the lack of water would cause a decrease in the number of people who would want to come and see the falls. On the other hand, others thought the exact opposite, that this unique opportunity to see what was hiding beneath the falls would attract a number of people they couldn’t handle.

Yes, unfortunately, the drying up of the American Falls resulted in the loss of a significant number of tourists. At the end of the year, that is 1969, the number of tourists who came to see the rocks without the water was lower than the numbers from the previous years when the falls were at their fullest volume.

Nevertheless, the people who did come to visit Niagara Falls during the summer months of 1969 had a unique opportunity to take something from the site and bring it home. Some took rocks, while others who were luckier got amazing coins from the riverbed.

While planning this operation and executing it, no one could even dream of finding anything so gruesome as skeletons. While the water was receding, these spectators noticed some bones beneath the water. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether the bones belonged to some ill-fated people or perhaps there were some big animals which drowned in the waters of the river.

One thing was for sure: it was better if there were not so many tourists because that awful scene would prevent them from coming to Niagara Falls ever again. The first two skeletons the engineers stumbled upon were of a man and a woman. After they were examined, it turned out that the man met his death by jumping into the waters of Niagara Falls. Still, they didn’t give the year of his death.

As far as the woman’s skeleton’s concerned, no other possible causes of death were visible apart from drowning. It was speculated that the woman witnessed her lover drown and decided to meet him in death at the same spot. As the waters receded, more skeletons emerged from beneath. Apparently, in the past, this site was a place where many people decided to say goodbye to this world.

Still, this fashion isn’t only related to pastimes. The experts in the matter say that even today, every year, about 40 people come here to commit suicide. It’s understandable why suicidal people have always been attracted by this place. Once you jump into the falls, nothing can save you. Well, maybe only a miracle would do the trick. No human arm can fight the cold and vicious waters.

Not only suicidal people lost their lives in the waters of Niagara Falls. In the past, there were many accidents in which some people accidentally fell and disappeared. Even some stunt people came here to make their own shows and try to do the impossible: to jump from the cliffs into the water and then swim towards the shore.

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