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

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.

But interestingly, Niagara isn't the unstoppable beast that everyone thinks it is - as it turns out the US Army can just come along and run the falls dry, as they did in 1969 when they needed to conduct some necessary work.

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.

PA

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 US Army Corps of Engineers managed to set up a dam over the famous landmark, diverting all the water from the American side onto the Canadian side.

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

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

Shutterstock

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

As per Snopes, on Friday 13 June 13 1969, The Vancouver Sun published a story from The Associated Press, which said: "The bodies of an unidentified man and woman have been found here in a grisly beginning to a major engineering feat that has all but halted flow of the Niagara River over the American Falls.

"Police said today the decomposed body of the woman was discovered Wednesday while they searched for the man, who was seen leaping over the precipice. His body was found Thursday.

"The water was shunted to the channel flowing over the Horseshoe Falls so engineers can study the face of the American Falls in an attempt to halt erosion."

Once their engineering feat was complete, the Army allowed the water to freely flow and normality was restored, meaning the Niagara falls could continue being tourist attraction and hydroelectric source it's known as today.

Additional words: Stewart Perrie

Topics: World News, News, Interesting

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

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