Niagara Falls – Then and Now

Niagara Falls - view from the American side

I’ve been to Niagara Falls three times in my lifetime: 1972, 1976, and 2016. Each time,  I took photos and video of the area, but the quality greatly improved in that 40 year period due to the changes in digital cameras and photo processing software.  I thought I'd share some of these old and new photos to show how things looked then and now.

Two photos below show Niagara Falls taken from the American side, one in 1972 and the other in 2016. The most noticeable differences are the Canadian skyline and the shape of Luna Island, the latter visible in the center of the 1972 photo and in the upper left quadrant of the 2016 photo. Luna Island was closed in 1954 due to ground instability and reopened in 1972. As I don’t have an exact date for my 1972 photo, it was likely taken before the island was reopened, as what looks like a crane is faintly visible on the island. I have also included before and after views of the American Falls, taken from the Luna Island vantage point in 1976 and 2016.

When we visited last week, the weather was spectacular, with bright blue skies and comfortable temperatures. We ventured to the Canadian side first to get a close view of the Horseshoe Falls. The only downside was that the mist from both the American and the Canadian Falls were being blown in our direction, and the mist turned to big raindrops as we got closer to Horseshoe Falls. People walking away from the area closest to Horseshoe Falls were coming back drenched, and, as we weren’t dressed for that kind of moisture, we didn’t get as close as we did in our 1976 visit. I have also included photos (below) of the view of Horseshoe Falls; one from 1976 and a few from 2016.   While one can see the frontal views of all the falls from the Canadian side, there is nothing that beats standing right next to them on the American side.

After the photos is a very short video from our recent visit which conveys the sound and the power of the rushing water. All in all, Niagara Falls is an amazing natural wonder and it never gets old seeing it.  (Click on any image for a larger view.)

Niagara Falls, American Falls - 1972

Niagara Falls, American Falls - 2016

Niagara Falls, Canadian Horseshoe Falls - 1976

Niagara Falls, Canadian Horseshoe Falls - 2016

View from Luna Island, American Falls = 1976

View from Luna Island, American Falls  2016

View of the Canadian and American Falls from the Canadian side of the Falls - 2016

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

A Photographic History Lesson From My Grandfather – 70+ Years Later

Many years ago, after my mother’s father had passed away, she gave me a box of black and white photo negatives that were from snapshots taken by my grandfather over the years. With some of the negatives, he had them carefully rolled up and put back in their metal film containers; some were flat and grouped together using small slips of paper where my grandfather only wrote the year he took the pictures. At one point, I did attempt to look through some of them. Many of them were apparently photos of people that I could not recognize by looking at the negative. I tried to take a few out of the film containers and unroll them to determine the subject of the photos, but the negatives seemed brittle in some cases and I stopped so as not to ruin them. One thing was obvious: my grandfather liked to photograph people.

I tried scanning a few of the larger, flat negatives, but without having a software program at the time to help me convert the negative to a positive image, it became too time consuming to try to make anything of the pictures. So I carefully packed them back up, with the intent of going back one day when I did have better software to help me.

And then, I forgot about them.

Years later, and having some time on my hands today, I decided to bring the negatives out, scan some, and see if Photoshop would be of any help in figuring out what was on some of these pictures. I stayed away from the negatives that were rolled, as they still seemed to be too fragile to unroll. I selected a few from the larger, flat negatives that appeared to have a subject other than people in them. I was surprised to find that my grandfather appeared to have photographed a collapsed bridge sometime in 1938, so I searched the Internet to see if I could find out anything about the location of the bridge.

I appears that the pictures, dated January 29, 1938, were from the collapse of the Honeymoon Bridge (also known as the Falls View Bridge) at Niagara Falls. Ice that had blown down the river from heavy winds off Lake Erie a few days before had caused an ice jam that put too much pressure on the bridge supports, resulting in its eventual collapse.

Considering my grandparents lived in Cleveland and there wasn’t freeway access then as there is now, this was probably a big trip for them to undertake, especially in the dead of winter through the Lake Erie “snow belt.” (My guess is that they took US Route 20 most of the way.)

I thought I’d share some of the photos I was able to get from the old negatives. Granted, they are not as clear as others that can be found on the Internet, but to me they are priceless. It is as if my grandfather left me a gift of experiencing some of the history that he experienced, 70 years later.

By the way, you can find out more information about this bridge and its collapse, with some pictures, here and here.

Here are his pictures:

(the Falls)

The area where the bridge crossed over the river

The collapsed bridge in the ice filled river

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.