Would you believe the millions of gallons of water that rush over Niagara Falls can be turned off? It’s happened before and is about to happen again. All the water from the American side of Niagara Falls (the American Falls) will be rerouted in order to allow repairs to infrastructure. When that happens, we’ll see the bone-dry cliff where the water previously roared.
The last time the falls were shutoff was 1969 (see photo above and pictorial gallery below). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped the flow in order to see how the rushing water was eroding the falls. To do this, the 60,000 gallon-per second flow was diverted to Horseshoe Falls and the Robert Moses generating plant upriver.
Now the parks department once again wants to temporarily reroute water from the American side of the falls sometime over the next two to three years while crews replace two 115-year-old stone bridges.
Check out the pictorial gallery below for pictures of a dry Niagara Falls nearly 50 years ago.