WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Niagara Falls Dewatered 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.320 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. There's Charles, there's Jerome. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:12.600 This is Joshua. This is short Stuff the Legend. How 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.560 you doing. I'm doing good man. I'm pretty excited about 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.880 this one. Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? I have? 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:26.520 What's it like? Uh? Watery, damp, It's very pretty. It's 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.560 actually really need it's it's definitely worth seeing. Which falls 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.320 did you see? We went on the American side, but 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:35.000 then you know, when we got to the Canadian side, 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.080 we stopped and turned around and looked again. It's a 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.960 It's really definitely a site to see, for sure. Yeah, 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:42.760 I mean, I guess we should point that out for 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:44.920 people like me who have never been to Niagara Falls, 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.600 that there are a few falls. If you're American and 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:50.440 you don't want to leave the country, you can see 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.159 the American side, right if you want to see something that, 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.160 to my eye on images online looks better. The Canadian 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.560 Horseshoe Falls look pretty nice. H They're better, right, I 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.679 don't want to say better because I'm an American, but 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.440 they are much larger, there's much a much larger volume 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.760 of water. It's much more graceful, and they're separated by 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.080 a Goat Island, and then there's cute little bridal Veilfall 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.760 separated from the American Fall by Luna Island. Yeah, so 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.039 there's technically three falls with Niagara Falls, and um, what's 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.000 surprising to me, Chuck, is is um in researching this, 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.600 like that set up where you've got the American Falls, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.800 bridle Veil Falls, and then the Horseshoe Falls in the 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:41.480 Canadian side. That's only like five eight hundred years old. Yeah, 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.280 that seems old, but uh, I believe that. I don't 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.840 know why that sounds reasonable to me. Okay, well, that's 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.000 like I can't keep my socks on every time I 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.480 hear that. Yeah, because you think of something like a 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.120 geological feature like a waterfall, it's got to be ancient, right, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.400 But the idea that it's only been that way for 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.600 five hundred eight hundred years kind surprising, until, of course, 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.320 then you look into a little further and you see, oh, well, 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.560 this this waterfall is just eroding the earth beneath it 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.680 so quick that Yeah, it's it's of course it's not 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.760 always been this way. It just totally makes sense. Yeah, 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.080 and that erosion, you know, the the bottom of the 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:22.800 falls is pretty uh, intimidating. It's very rocky and uh jagged, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.079 big boulders. That's why going over a barrel. We did 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:28.840 a podcast, I guess if you want to call it, 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.000 that may many years ago in our early days, about 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.440 going over the falls in a barrel. Then it's incredibly dangerous. Yeah, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.280 it is very dangerous. And those rocks, though, haven't always 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.680 been there. There were two rock falls in the nineteen 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.560 thirties and the nineteen fifties, specifically under the American Falls, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.080 and that left a lot of bowlers underneath. And some 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.400 people said, well that is just unsightly, and frankly, it's 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.240 probably not very patriotic to let the Canadians best us 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.079 with their much more beautiful waterfall. Now, so we've got 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.440 to figure out what to do about us, because we 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.799 can't just let the American Falls go away, that's right. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.200 And who do you call when you need something like 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.720 this done? You know that you call the Army Corps 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.919 of Engineers. And they said, well, really, the only way 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.160 to find out what's going on is to dry up 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.880 this waterfall. And everyone at the table spit out their 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.639 coffee and they said, you're crazy. It's it's nineteen nine. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.720 What are you talking about? And they said, you know, 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.240 it's really not that hard. Yeah, it really isn't. So 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.880 they hired a construction company and they built a Coffer dam, 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.320 which I believe we talked about in the Hoover Dam episode. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.560 It's just like a mound of earth that is holding 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.440 water back, um, that's not normally there. And they built 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.200 that at the point like the fork where the American 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.280 Falls began, and they diverted the Niagara River mostly over 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.880 to the Horseshoe Falls, a little bit to the Bridle Falls. 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.480 But then that was it. Like the water stopped flowing 0:03:55.520 --> 0:04:00.280 over the Niagara the American Fall and it virtually ride 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.680 everything up. It was kind of easy if you if 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.360 you think about it. I mean, it was a massive, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.880 huge project, but it wasn't technically that hard. Yeah. It 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.920 was close to twenty eight thousand tons of phil So 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:13.800 that's a lot of a lot of dirt and rock 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.880 and fills. It's a lot of fills. Um. But when 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.880 you think about the fact that the Horseshoe Fall accounts 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:26.560 for of the dump anyway, like they couldn't damn a 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.359 Porshoe fall. There's no way, right, I I don't believe 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.760 so no, I don't think the American Fall could take it. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:33.920 The other thing I wonder too, is if when they 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.559 did this, if he could tell a difference at Horseshoe Fall. Yes, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.200 I read that you could really most decidedly cooler. Right, 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.560 I'm teen percent more inspired. I love it. Yeah, the 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.000 rainbows around it were ten percent brighter. It was just 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.560 you could really tell. Well, should we take a little break? Well, sure, man, 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.680 all right, let's take a break and find out exactly 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.040 what they did once they had these dry falls right 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:22.160 after this, so again, chuck there. They dried up Niagara 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.039 Fall because they wanted to figure out how to keep 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.880 it from roading and possibly how to clean it up, 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.080 like clean up all those boulders that talus at the 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.320 bottom from those rock falls, because they were worried about 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.800 it looking ug basically, that's right. But here's the thing, 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.640 uh that, And you should look up pictures of this 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.840 if you're not driving your car, because it's pretty remarkable, 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.800 it really is to see this thing, uh dried up 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.640 like that. I mean, it just looks like a you know, 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.840 really flat mountain basically like a cliff, which is what 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.359 it is. But they couldn't keep it all dry that 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.400 face they had to keep wet because it had never 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.520 been dried out and exposed to the sun and the wind, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.839 and they were rightfully worried about what might happen, so 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.359 they had to keep spray in that face kind of 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.080 continually from what like June to November. Yeah, they installed 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.560 the sprinkler system to do it, and they didn't have 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:12.720 just a bunch of people right to standing there like 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.440 this is the worst summer job of all time, that's right. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.640 But then they had to clean out the riverbed, so 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.840 they sam blasted out um a bunch of stuff, and 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.120 they get the moss off, and they sprayed all these 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.040 rocks clean and got all the loose gravel out of there. 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.520 And they really wanted to see what was going on, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:35.520 you know, geologically, so they injected blue dye uh into 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.000 the They drilled down into the riverbed injected blue dye, 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.320 and they were like, let's let's see what happens. Let's 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.000 sit back and have have a t and see where 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.040 this blue comes out. And then some of the more 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.200 excited workmen among them and be like, oh, there it 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.080 is there, it is something. When the blue die started 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.000 to emerge and they clap him point and laugh. That's right. Um. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.680 They also installed something called extensive meters, which are pretty interesting. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.680 They're little sounds so made up there it does. It 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.159 also sounds like something a mad villain would would use, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.039 but it measures the movement of the rock in the 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.120 foundation or the bed or the riverbed of the American 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.360 Falls to to basically look out for any movement greater 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.600 than one one h of an inch. This is pretty specific, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.640 very specific. And they also installed little metal posts called 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.240 monuments which they can use in the future and have 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.160 used in the future, um to survey the area and 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.800 see if they've moved at all, if the riverbed has 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.720 moved at all, in the hopes that they will be 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.560 able to catch a rock fall from happening or erosion 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.880 from happening before it happens. That's right. And they did 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.880 find a place where they thought it was pretty susceptible 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.840 in the future to occur, and that was a prospect point. Uh. 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:49.680 This had already been a place where they had a 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.240 rock fall in the nine, which is the one that 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.080 kind of kick started this whole plan to begin with. 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.960 So prospect point is a problem quite frankly, yes, although 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.680 this was uh the last time it happened. It has 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.480 happened since. No, it hasn't. And I think some people 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.840 might be a little surprised because this is nineteen sixty nine, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.280 where they're like, uh, this is probably where it's going 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.160 to happen next again, and it just still hasn't. It 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.760 was a summer of love, it was. That's so funny. 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.640 Look I haven't written down here the summer of Love underneathing. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.640 Did you get that email? Yeah? Yeah, apparently we've been 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.680 saying summer of Love is at anything but nineteen sixty seven, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.920 then that is officially the summer of Love. I did 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:29.960 not know that, so I always thought it was sixty 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.160 eight For some reason, I always thought it was sixty nine. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:37.520 All right? Well, uh in show correction short stuff style. Yes, 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.520 So back to the dry bed. You would think who 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.880 would want to come see a dried up Niagara Falls, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.040 And it turns out a lot of people would you not? Well, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.000 I mean, I haven't been this. I would want to. 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:51.720 I don't know if that would want that to be 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.079 my first trip right right? Or you would definitely want 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.000 to go back a second time when it's in full 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.079 swing first, or maybe actually that would be the time 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.400 to go because you could see that and Horseshoe Falls 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.640 and get the best of both worlds. Yeah. So so 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.319 some people were thinking like that and thought like this 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.760 is amazing. There was one weekend in mid July where 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.400 nine people streamed through there um to see, you know, 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.200 because this is this is kind of a once in 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.920 a lifetime thing to see Niagara Falls dried up or 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.640 the American Falls at least. But overall that tourist season 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.400 was pretty pretty lame because a lot of people were like, well, 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.959 I guess it's under construction. I'm not gonna I'm not 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.000 gonna pay for that road trip to go see a 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.400 Lamo fall. Yeah. And the original plan was there, like 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.400 let's try this thing out and invite people out to 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.560 walk around and do stuff. They kind of were like, 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.520 it's a little too wet still, and it's probably still 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.400 kind of dangerous. So it was in August finally that 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.240 they deemed it dry enough for people to go out safely. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:52.720 I think that they never allowed people up on the cliff, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.480 did they. Well, they built a fence on the brink, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.280 so I think I don't know how close to the 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:01.560 brink they were loued to be, but I get the 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.120 impression that all throughout the summer, whether they were allowed 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:05.960 out there or not, people would go run out on 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.160 the riverbed and just like hang out, and then they 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.079 would be chased off by the army corps, like we 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:17.120 might not have guns, but we have sextants. Another thing 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.120 they did, and I just consider this very bad luck, 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.280 people would go out and collect wish coins. I just 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:30.440 didn't that bad luck. I don't know, those are people's wishes. 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.920 We've seen the good eats. Yeah, yeah, but the wishes 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.960 have come and gone. I mean, come on, if it's 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.000 not if they hadn't been granted by now, they're not 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.040 going to be granted. You know, let's give those coins 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.800 another shot. I guess. So it just seems I don't know, 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.240 it doesn't seem right. That's like that one part in 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.120 the Simpsons, the beer baron episode where they're driving through 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.760 the cemetery and bar goes, Dad, it's bad luck to 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.160 run over gravestones, and Homer goes, really, I heard good, 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:59.839 it's good luck. Um. One thing they did find, and 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.400 it's kind of amazing they didn't find more dead bodies, 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.280 but they did find too. One of them was a 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.479 pretty recent one that they were actually looking for this guy. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.920 They saw this guy dive into the river about a 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.360 week before, so they knew he would be in there. 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.360 But what they didn't know is that they would find 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.320 a very creepy find woman in a red striped dress 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.920 who had been down there for a long time. It says, 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.960 lodged head first into the talus. Didn't that's so ghoulish. 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:33.880 And she had a gold ring inscribed with forget me not. Yeah, 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:35.800 and then the irony of that is that she's never 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.640 been identified. Yeah, that seems remarkable to me. It doesn't. Man. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:41.920 I looked. I was like, I don't know how else 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.640 to word the search, but I didn't find anything about 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.240 that woman being identified ever. Um, so I don't. And 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.480 I'm also not sure that the guy who jumped the 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.000 week before they turned the water off was ever identified 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:58.079 as well. It was, but they they yeah, he was 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.160 mistaken for a worker by some people who's um initially 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.000 jump in and then they were like, oh wait, that 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.160 that guy. That's not good. Yeah, but but yeah, a 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.040 lot of people are surprised that they didn't find more 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.840 bodies because there's a lot of people who die by 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.560 suicide or just do something dumb and and go over 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.600 the you know, falls in a barrel or whatever, like 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.520 it's it's a well known place to do that. And 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.600 only two bodies is kind of strange. Yeah, they found 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.320 one deer carcass, which that's kind of surprising. I just 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.439 thought it would be littered with carcasses. I think that's 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.640 kind of what they were half expecting to It was 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.280 probably a good you know, they were delighted by that. 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:40.400 I'm sure they were. Yeah. So by November they're like, Okay, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.400 we've figured out everything we can figure out. We've kind 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.840 of shorted up as best we can. Um, from what 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:51.120 I read the the waterfall naturally eroded at like five 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.520 ft a year, and now they've got it down to 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.000 one because of this stuff they did in nineteen nine 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.240 and later nine two. But um, they said, okay, it's 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:00.760 time to turn the wall are back on, and they 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:06.840 did on get this November nine, which I believe was 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.720 fifty years and two days ago. Oh wow, isn't that 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:18.680 neat anniversary? Happy water Day, Reintroduction of water to Fall Day. Uh. Yeah. 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.319 And of course they had to do it slowly throughout 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.560 the course of a day. They couldn't just make some 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:28.120 big magnificent scene and say watch this everybody. I'm sure 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.120 they wanted to, but hang on to your duff's. Yeah, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.160 I'm sure they did some math to figure out just 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:35.800 kind of how slow they needed to go with it. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:37.880 But it was still probably pretty cool to see it all. 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.480 Bet it was, for sure. Um. And so what was 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.240 kind of heartening to me is they said, Okay, we 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.559 learned a lot. Actually we can probably keep this thing 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.800 from a roading, but should we? And this joint task 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.280 force to kind of preserve Niagara Falls, but a joint 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.200 commission between Canada and the US said, well, what are 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.280 the residents around here? Thinks? So they sent out little 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.400 mailers and asked, like two thousand residents in Canada and 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.000 on the U. S side, what do you guys think 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.360 we should do? And the majority of people said, Hey, 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.040 it's a natural formation. Just leave it to nature. Leave 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.520 it be. So they did. I thought that was kind 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.760 of neat. I like it. They ask locally too, right, 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:22.680 They they asked local locally and acted locally. There you go. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.000 Oh yeah. They were going to turn it off all 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.280 more time in two thousand nineteen to fix some bridges, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.240 and I believe time has basically run out on that project, 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.720 so it might happen in let's cross our fingers, maybe 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.440 we can do a podcast live from the brink. That's 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.040 a really great idea, Chuck, Well, I guess that's the 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:45.080 end of short stuff Chuck, which means short stuff out. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.880 Stuff you should Know is a production of iHeart Radios 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.600 How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.560 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:57.800 listen to your favorite shows.