A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

by Barlow Cumberland

The Niagara Falls Park Electric Railway, then already in operation on the Canadian side between the Falls and Queenston running on the upper level follows the river banks of the Gorge, overlooking it from these heights and adding views of the far vistas of the surrounding country and up and down the river.

The new Electric Railway, on the American side, put into full working operation in this year, and known as the Gorge Line, was constructed far down in the Gorge, just a little above the waters edge, following the curvings of the river, beneath the cliffs, and giving opportunity for coming into immediate proximity with the tossing rapids on this lower part of its torrents.

The construction of this railway from the Falls to Lewiston was the work of Messrs. Brinker & Smith, of Buffalo, and in boldness of conception, and overcoming of intense difficulties in construction, is a record of great determination and ability.

How the FALLS have cut through the GORGE.

A round trip on both these lines, going up on one and returning by the other, and crossing the river on the cars at the Upper Bridge, reveals all the glorious scenery of the Niagara River between the Falls where they now are and the Niagara Escarpment at Queenston Heights, where the geologists tell us the Falls once fell over the cliffs to the lower level. It is estimated that from this place of beginning of the chasm which they have cut out of the strata of the intervening rocks, from 16,000 to 25,000 years, according to different views, have been spent in reaching to their present position and they are still continuing to cut their way back further up the river.

The process by which this has been done can be clearly seen by noticing on the sides of the cliffs that the several layers of limestone strata lie flat above one another, with large softer layers and deposits between each. The waters of the river at the upper level pour over the edge of the topmost rock ledge, and the reverberations and spray then wash out the intervening sand and softer layers, so that the rock strata becoming unsupported break off, and fall down into the gulf. In this way the chasm has year after year been bitten back.

When leaving the dock on the Niagara River Line steamers at Lewiston, or coming up the river from Niagara-on-the-Lake, it is enthralling to look up at these great cliffs, and in imagination casting the mind back into the centuries, see the mighty river as it once poured its torrents direct in one concentrated mass from the edge of these heights into the open river lying at their feet.

What a stupendous spectacle it must have been; yet, though wondrous, not more beautiful than the distant glimpses now gleaming through the shadowed portal between the cliff-sides clad with verdure and cedar, dominated by the shaft of the monument to the heroes of the Queenston Heights.

The acquiring of landing terminals on the Niagara River was further expanded in 1899, by the purchase from the Duncan Milloy Estate of the docks at Niagara-on-the-Lake. In addition to the wharves this property includes the shipyard of the old-time Niagara Dock Company, whose launching slips for the many steamers which they constructed are still in evidence. On the doors of the large warehouse alongside the wharf, there were then still to be traced the faint remains of the names of some of the vessels, which of old time used to ply to the port. The ground floor of the building appears to have been divided into sections, in which space for the freightage or equipment of each of the several vessels was allotted. Over the door of each section were the names for the occupants, as originally painted.