Niagara
Falls is the world's second largest falls and is located at the international
border between US and Canada. One-fifth of the world's freshwater flows over
these falls that form a spectacular drop of over 200 feet. But the falls are
famous for their wide brink which spans over 2600 ft and is the largest in the
world.
Every second, over
half a million gallons of water explode over the knife-edge Niagara falls,
right on the border with Canada some twenty miles north of Buffalo on I-190.
This awesome spectacle is made even more so by the variety of methods laid on to
help you get closer: boats, catwalks, observation towers and helicopters all
push as near to the curtain of gushing water as they dare. At night the falls
are lit up, and the colored waters tumble dramatically into blackness, while in
winter the whole scene changes as the falls freeze to form gigantic razor-tipped
icicles.
Many visitors will, however, find the whole experience a bit
too gimmicky; no commercial opening has been left unexploited (Oscar Wilde
quipped that he would have been more impressed if the falls ran upwards; at
least no one's tried that yet) and now corporate big-hitters like the Hard
Rock Cafe have joined in the action, pushing the place closer to an aquatic
Vegas (there's already a casino on the Canadian side). Don't expect too
much; neither the small city of Niagara Falls, still a smelly, shabby
industrial eyesore despite recent efforts to spruce it up, nor the more
developed tinsel town of Niagara, Canada, is a place to savour in any
way.
Once you've seen the falls, from as many different angles as
you can manage, there's no point in sticking around, and you'll have a better
time heading on to Buffalo (or Rochester, or anywhere) rather than trying to
rustle up some fun here. However, one of the biggest factory outlet malls in
the country is just north of the city, and seems to be almost as big a draw as
the falls these days.
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