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1911 : the year Niagara froze

A while ago I wrote a post about what I believe the most spectacular waterfalls in the world are, but you guys gave me some excellent feedback and I fould out about more amazing waterfalls, so thanks a whole lot!! I’ve kept researching waterfalls and I found something that really totally took me by surprise: […]

Mihai Andrei
May 17, 2009 @ 11:36 am

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A while ago I wrote a post about what I believe the most spectacular waterfalls in the world are, but you guys gave me some excellent feedback and I fould out about more amazing waterfalls, so thanks a whole lot!!
I’ve kept researching waterfalls and I found something that really totally took me by surprise: Niagara froze – totally!! It happened a long time ago in 1911 and as a result, the quality of the photos isn’t amazing, but the photos themselves are.

The first thing I asked myself when I came across this set was “can Niagara actually freeze??” As it turns out, the answer is yes. What happens is during a very harsh winter a crust of ice accumulates along the fall creating this amazing natural landscape.

You have to keep in mind that it doesn’t actually freeze solid, but the ice thickness went up to 50 feet (almost 17 meters).

The blanket of ice has been known to spread along the whole Niagara river and people used to cross it until 1912, when there was a tragic accident when the ice broke. Also, I have found no irrefutable evidence that this event took place in 1911, so maybe there’s other similarly awesome photos – if you have, or stumble upon such pictures, please be so kind as to share them with us.

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