Book ID: CBB247740357

Fixing Niagara Falls: Environment, Energy, and Engineers at the World’s Most Famous Waterfall (2020)

unapi

Macfarlane, Daniel (Author)


University of British Columbia Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 274
Language: English

Since the late nineteenth century, Niagara Falls has been heavily engineered to generate energy behind a flowing facade designed to appeal to tourists. Essentially, this natural wonder is now a tap: huge tunnels channel the waters of the Niagara River around the Falls, which ebb and flow according to the tourism calendar.Fixing Niagara Falls reveals the technological feats and cross-border politics that facilitated the transformation of one of the most important natural sites in North America. Daniel Macfarlane details how engineers, bureaucrats, and politicians conspired to manipulate the world’s most famous waterfall. During the first half of the twentieth century, the United States and Canada explored various ways to maximize hydropower from the Niagara River while “preserving” the falls. Decades of environmental diplomacy and transborder studies led to a 1950 treaty that allowed new hydro-electric stations to funnel most of the river’s water to generate power. To facilitate these diversions and lessen the visual impact of redirecting so much water, the two nations cooperated to install a range of control works while reshaping and shrinking the Horseshoe Falls. This book offers a unique perspective on how the Niagara landscape embodies both the power of technology and the power of nature.

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Reviewed By

Review Petra Dolata (2022) Review of "Fixing Niagara Falls: Environment, Energy, and Engineers at the World’s Most Famous Waterfall". Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine (pp. 143-144). unapi

Review Donald C. Jackson (2023) Review of "Fixing Niagara Falls: Environment, Energy, and Engineers at the World’s Most Famous Waterfall". Technology and Culture (pp. 288-290). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB247740357/

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Authors & Contributors
Macfarlane, Daniel
Waite, Thornton
Williams, John
Gray Fitzsimons
Frank, John E.
Vondrak, Otto M.
Concepts
Hydroelectric power
Tourism
Industrial archaeology
Environmental history
Environment
Rivers
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Canada
Niagara Falls
New York (U.S.)
New Hampshire (U.S.)
Butte, Montana
Institutions
New York, Westchester and Boston Railway
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company
New York Central Railroad Company
St. John's University (New York)
World Bank
Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)
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