Facing The Falls

Santhanam Lakshminarasimhan describes his family’s recent trip to the fascinating Niagara Falls.

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Waterfalls are always interesting tourist attractions. And so you can well imagine the excitement when you have a chance to visit one of the largest and most famous waterfalls of the world. Yes, I am talking about the Niagara Falls on the border of the US and Canada. Accompanied by my son’s family, we drove from Woodstock near Baltimore, Maryland for seven straight hours through Harrisburg, Williamsport, Tiago’s state forest, Mansfield and Buffalo to reach Niagara, the journey taking us through beautiful mountainous landscapes lined with trees that reflected the fall season’s hues of gold, orange, red and various shades of green. We also passed by several lakes and the rivers Susquehanna and Niagara before reaching Niagara city in the state of New York. It is about 120 km from Toronto, a major Canadian city.

The Waterfall

Niagara Falls is a collective name for three waterfalls – American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls. Considered one of the biggest attractions in the world, it is visited by about 20 million tourists every year. During peak daytime tourist hours,more than six million cubic feet (168,000 cube metres) of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute. The river Niagara flows at the rate of 56 km per hour and drains water from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. This fall was formed about 12,000 years ago. It has a width of 1,100 metres and a drop of 51 metres.