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The Hidden Engineering of Niagara Falls

(practical.engineering)
184 points chmaynard | 1 comments | 21 Oct 25 22:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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comrade1234 ◴[22 Oct 25 11:17 UTC] No.45667413[source]▶
I was at Niagara Falls a few years ago and it just seemed kind of weak. I mean, yes it was impressive but thinking about the rivers I know and have seen that empty just into Lake Superior, and multiplying that by all of the other rivers that empty into the great lakes, it just didn't seem like it was enough water.

And so I looked it up and it was correct. Almost all of the water that would go over the falls is redirected to power generation. A secondary good effect is that this reduces erosion of the falls - before this they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.

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1. noahjk ◴[22 Oct 25 16:03 UTC] No.45671184[source]▶
> they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.

It's not often we witness a large-scale geographic shift - while obviously we needed to preserve the lake in this scenario, imagine watching this unfold as a great lake disappears. That would be a sight to see! (Granted, assuming 36 miles between the falls and the lake, that would happen ~60,000 years from now)