YESTERDAY AND TODAY: Bridging the Niagara Gorge

From the Niagara Falls Review:

The first bridges across the Niagara River (first for pedestrians and carriages, later also allowing for railroad traffic) opened in the late 1840s and early 1850s. They were a good distance away from the Falls, crossing the Niagara Gorge where the CN crosses today at the eastern end of Bridge Street in Niagara Falls.

The success of those first bridges in that area led to a desire to have similar bridges much closer to the Falls. So it was that in 1867 work began on the first bridge that would cross the Gorge further south, two miles closer to the Falls.

That first Falls View bridge was a suspension bridge that lasted from 1867 to 1889. It was finally blown down in a storm in January 1889, but within five months it was replaced by a second Falls View suspension bridge.

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