Niagara Falls — Water, War & Power
Horseshoe Falls — Table Rock
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
Table Rock gives you the classic Canadian view of Horseshoe Falls, but the name refers to a physical feature that no longer survives. A flat shelf of rock once projected near the brink; erosion caused major collapses, including one in 1850.
By the nineteenth century, millions of visitors were coming to Niagara, but access was messy and commercial. Private owners fenced viewpoints, charged fees and filled the river edge with makeshift attractions.
Ontario created the Niagara Parks Commission in 1885, and public parkland changed the visitor experience.
The waterfall itself has also moved over geological time as erosion cut the gorge upstream from the Niagara Escarpment.
Legend note: guidebooks sometimes present the brink as timeless. It is not. Niagara is a moving geological system that humans have spent enormous effort stabilizing, diverting and managing.
The view is natural. The way you are able to enjoy it is highly engineered.