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US Army Found Bodies And Coins When It Ran Niagara Falls Dry

US Army Found Bodies And Coins When It Ran Niagara Falls Dry

The Army had to organise the temporary dam in 1969 to clear out rock debris that had collected at the bottom for decades

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Most people know the Niagara Falls as this immense, powerful force of nature that dumps an average of 2,400 cubic metres every single second into the river below. That's a hell of a lot of water.

But interestingly, Niagara isn't the unstoppable beast that everyone thinks it is. In fact, in 1969, the US Army managed to run the falls dry to conduct some necessary work to ensure it could remain the tourist attraction and hydroelectric source it's known today.

As you can imagine, with all that water running through the river, spilling over the edge and falling 50 metres, it's also going to shift some of the earth around it.

After decades, even centuries, of this erosion, there were plenty of rocks that were piling up at the base of the falls, disrupting the natural flow.

So a team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed to set up a dam over the famous landmark, diverting all the water over onto their neighbour's side. Take that Canada.

RUSS GLASSON/BARCROFT/GETTY IMAGES

Over the course of a few months, this team managed to construct a wall that stretched 180 metres across and was built from 30,000 tons of rocks.

You can only imagine people's reactions to seeing the legendary falls dry.

According to Mashable, when the final drips of water flowed over, the team found two dead bodies, which was thought, at the time, to be pretty low considering the number of accidents and suicides in the area over the years.

But Niagara had also been one of those spots where tourists flick a coin in for good luck. Knowing full well that this could be a potential goldmine, people leapt onto the dry rock, where there would normally be incredibly fast flowing water, and picked up as much money as possible.

PA

Once their engineering feat was complete, the Army allowed the water to freely flow and all was good with the world.

Mashable says that this mission could soon be undertaken again as two bridges that help connect people from either side are starting to show signs of aging.

There have been some moments in the last century where the winter has been so cold that it's caused most of the Falls to freeze over.

Last year was the most recent, however in that case, and the other half dozen, the landmark didn't fully come to a halt. That has only ever happened naturally in the winter of 1948.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: America, Water, Interesting, Community