November 9, 2022
A whitewater wonder visited by everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Mark Twain, Niagara Falls has been a magnet drawing global travelers for at least two centuries. But until this year, a huge tunnel buried deep below the cascade has been off-limits to visitors.
The rocks beneath the gigantic triple waterfall that straddles the border between the state of New York and Canada’s province of Ontario are honeycombed with chambers carved out to harness the powerful forces of nature thundering overhead.
And now, a 2,198-foot tunnel built more than a century ago on the Canadian side has been opened up to reveal the awesome scale of these engineering marvels.
Since July 2022, it’s been part of tours of the decommissioned Niagara Parks Power Station tour which began a year earlier. Exploring it offers a fascinating glimpse into pioneering work that helped bring this corner of North America into the modern age.
The power station, which operated from 1905 until 2006, diverted water from the mighty Niagara River to run giant generators that electrified regional industry and contributed to the nearby Great Lakes port of Buffalo becoming known as the City of Light.
The region around the waterfall, according to station tour guide Elena Zoric, was once a hub of activity for businessmen who wanted to cash in on harnessing hydro power.
The Adams hydroelectric power plant was the first to open, operating on the U.S. side from 1895 to 1961. On the Canadian side, the Ontario Power Company operated from 1905 to 1999, and the Toronto Power Generating Station from 1906 to 1974.
