Why Nobody Wants to Visit Niagara Falls, New York Anymore
Forgotten America
4,837 views
In June 1969, the United States Army Corps of Engineers turned off the American Falls — and for six months, 100,000 people walked the dry riverbed of one of the world's most famous waterfalls. What they found there, hidden beneath the water for decades, tells you everything you need to know about what was about to happen to Niagara Falls, New York.
One of the most recognized natural wonders on earth sits on the border between the United States and Canada — and the two cities built around it could not be more different. Niagara Falls, Ontario is a glittering casino resort with over 100 hotels on the rim, a billion-dollar gaming complex with views of the Horseshoe Falls from the gaming floor, and millions of overnight visitors a year. Niagara Falls, New York has lost half its population since 1960, was placed under state fiscal oversight in 2011, and remains one of the most economically distressed cities in New York State. This video tells the full story of how that happened — from the Haudenosaunee people and Father Hennepin's wildly exaggerated 1678 account, to Frederick Law Olmsted's creation of America's very first state park, to Nikola Tesla's world-changing power station, to the Love Canal chemical disaster that buried 21,800 tons of chemical waste beneath a neighborhood and an elementary school, to Robert Moses's parkway that severed the city from its own waterfront for sixty years, to the Canadian casino that redirected millions of overnight visitors across the bridge. The waterfall is still there. It is still free. It has been free since 1885. And from the American rim, late in the afternoon when the tour buses have gone, you can watch the Canadian side blazing across the gorge and understand in a single image exactly what went wrong.
If this video made you think differently about a place you thought you knew, subscribe for more deep dives into the rise and fall of American places — and leave a comment below: which side of the border have you been to, and did you know this story before today?
#NiagaraFalls #LoveCanal #AmericanHistory #UrbanDecline #NiagaraFallsNY #RobertMoses #HistoryDocumentary #LostAmerica #TravelHistory #NaturalWonders #NewYorkHistory #TourismHistory #AmericanPlaces #UrbanHistory #ForgottenAmerica
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Why Nobody Wants to Visit Niagara Falls, New York Anymore
Forgotten America
4,837 views
In June 1969, the United States Army Corps of Engineers turned off the American Falls — and for six months, 100,000 people walked the dry riverbed of one of the world's most famous waterfalls. What they found there, hidden beneath the water for decades, tells you everything you need to know about what was about to happen to Niagara Falls, New York.
One of the most recognized natural wonders on earth sits on the border between the United States and Canada — and the two cities built around it could not be more different. Niagara Falls, Ontario is a glittering casino resort with over 100 hotels on the rim, a billion-dollar gaming complex with views of the Horseshoe Falls from the gaming floor, and millions of overnight visitors a year. Niagara Falls, New York has lost half its population since 1960, was placed under state fiscal oversight in 2011, and remains one of the most economically distressed cities in New York State. This video tells the full story of how that happened — from the Haudenosaunee people and Father Hennepin's wildly exaggerated 1678 account, to Frederick Law Olmsted's creation of America's very first state park, to Nikola Tesla's world-changing power station, to the Love Canal chemical disaster that buried 21,800 tons of chemical waste beneath a neighborhood and an elementary school, to Robert Moses's parkway that severed the city from its own waterfront for sixty years, to the Canadian casino that redirected millions of overnight visitors across the bridge. The waterfall is still there. It is still free. It has been free since 1885. And from the American rim, late in the afternoon when the tour buses have gone, you can watch the Canadian side blazing across the gorge and understand in a single image exactly what went wrong.
If this video made you think differently about a place you thought you knew, subscribe for more deep dives into the rise and fall of American places — and leave a comment below: which side of the border have you been to, and did you know this story before today?
#NiagaraFalls #LoveCanal #AmericanHistory #UrbanDecline #NiagaraFallsNY #RobertMoses #HistoryDocumentary #LostAmerica #TravelHistory #NaturalWonders #NewYorkHistory #TourismHistory #AmericanPlaces #UrbanHistory #ForgottenAmerica