Niagara: A History of the Falls (59 page)

Barnett’s Museum in 1862. It was moved several times. The collection, much enlarged, can still be seen at the Falls.

In its day, the Clifton House was the finest hotel at Niagara. Cupolas and pagodas were the architectural whimsies of the time.

A bedraggled Annie Taylor photographed just after she emerged, slightly stunned, from her barrel, which she later put on display. Her manager, F.M. “Tussie” Russell, poses with her, but this barrel is actually a replica of the original.

The famous Falls ice bridge,
circa
1900. It’s doubtful if anyone stayed at the “hotel,” which wasn’t much more than a closed-in shack. Note the inclined railway on the American side, in the background.

James Harris, photographed as he was brought to safety by breeches-buoy in 1918. The scow, from which he was saved, can still be seen in the rapids.

Red Hill, his saviour, poses with the barrel that later took him through the Whirlpool on a trip that almost killed him.

At the turn of the century, this young woman found it easier to pose, not before the falls, but before a painting of the great cataract.

Construction of the cofferdam for the generating station of the Electrical Development Company (later the Toronto Power Company) in 1903.

Across the river, fifteen years earlier, the Americans built this huge discharge tunnel to get rid of the waste water used by the Niagara Falls power company.

The EDC’s powerplant, designed by Edward Lennox after the century’s turn, looked much like an Italian palace. It is now being restored.