How Niagara Falls Eats Itself

Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge. Goat Island splits the river in two.

Horseshoe Falls stands about 57 meters high and is roughly 790 meters wide.

During peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 cubic meters of water goes over every minute.

The water is green from dissolved salts and rock flour. It is a wet gravel driveway.

About 100,000 seagulls winter in the region for the foraging potential. Winter tourism has its regulars.

The falls will vanish in fifty thousand years.

In 1885, legislation creating the Niagara Reservation was signed. It became the first state park in New York. First place, no contest.

Erosion once averaged 1 to 1.5 meters per year over at least the last 560 years. Engineering slowed that down.