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Places Around the World
Niagara Falls
- Location: Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.A. (bordering Canada and the United States) (Continent of North America)
- Built by: Created by large glaciers that started to melt, and the water carved out the falls
- Date created: The falls started to form about 12,000 years ago and continue today
- Size: Horseshoe Falls 2,220 ft (670 m) wide, American Falls 850 ft (260 m) wide, and Bridal Veil Fall 50 ft (15 m) wide. Their heights range from 65-190 ft (20-58 m) from the tops of the waterfalls to the river below
- Water volume: About 2,727,000,000 gallons (10,322,813,070 liters) per hour (about 4,131 Olympic-sized swimming pools)
- Niagara Falls is three different waterfalls: Horseshoe Falls (also known as the Canadian Falls), American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls.
- The waterfalls get their water now from 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Erie. Then Niagara Falls flows into the 5th Great Lakes, Lake Ontario.
- There is a small island named Luna Island that separates the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, and you can get there by crossing a bridge on foot. This island got its name from the “lunar rainbows” it can create at night during a full moon.
- The falls have never been frozen solid, even though they will look like it. When the temperatures get cold enough, the top layer of the falls will freeze over, but the water underneath keeps flowing.
- The Falls can make 4 million kilowatts of electricity, supplying more than a quarter of all the power used in New York State, the USA, and Ontario, Canada.
- People have gone over the falls and lived! The first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel was 63-year-old school teacher Annie Edson Taylor.
- You can take a boat tour at the bottom of the falls to get an up-close view, but bring a raincoat because you will get wet.
- Nine people have tightrope walked across the falls. The first walk was in 1859 by a French man named Jean Francois Gravelet. Only one person died out of the nine people who walked across the falls.
