In mind's eye, Niagara Falls is still honeymoon heaven

By Jane Wooldridge
Knight Ridder Newspapers

DAVID DUPREY / AP A tour boat cruises to the base of Horseshoe Falls under a rainbow on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

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For nearly two centuries, the mere mention of Niagara Falls has spawned images of romance: shy brides, proud grooms, couples arm-in-arm gazing wistfully at the thundering torrent and each other.

Granted, today's couples are more likely to honeymoon in the Caribbean or Hawaii than at the twin cascades spanning the U.S.-Canada border. But in our "imaginary geography," as Niagara history author Karen Dubinsky puts it, Niagara Falls is still "The Honeymoon Capital of the World."

Brides in flowing gossamer gowns waited their turns with grooms in starched collars for the most idyllic photo-taking spots — a cloisterlike breezeway, an arched pavilion and flower-filled gardens in Victoria Park, on the falls' Canadian side.

Patricia Moore Beeley, 19, and Jared Beeley, 22, of Shelburne, Ont., had "eloped" with 20 family members and friends in tow. "We wanted to get away from everything. It's so beautiful here."

Beautiful — the refrain is as constant as the water itself, gushing at a rate of as much as 750,000 gallons per second in summer over a 170-foot drop into a gorge carved by thousands of years of erosion.

Visitors can view the falls from the left (the U.S. side), right (the Canadian, which offers the best views), above (from towering hotel rooms) and below (on the famed Maid of Mist boats and from platforms on both sides of the border). But the falls are arguably most impressive at Table Rock, at the Canadian brink, where the Coke-bottle-colored water dashes, desolate and relentless, over the rocky edge.

Niagara Falls By the numbers Horseshoe Falls Crest line: 2,500 feet Drop: 167 feet American Falls Crest line: 1,100 feet Drop: 176 feet Combined flow Varies by time of day and time of year; can be as much as 750,000 gallons per second in summer. Niagara Gorge Extends seven miles from the falls to Queenston, Ont.

Don't be surprised if the crowd simply fades from consciousness and you find yourself spellbound, lost in the mind-numbing sound and bottomless green fury.

It was this transfixing quality that first transformed the falls into the resort of choice for wealthy travelers of the 1830s and '40s, a must-do on the grand tour of North America.

"I felt how near to my creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was peace," wrote Charles Dickens after his 1841 visit.

The entrepreneurial spirit that danced around the falls was equally potent. As early as 1827, a local hotel owner lured visitors by sending a schooner filled with live animals over the falls. By 1850, Cave Of The Winds, still a popular attraction on the U.S. side, and Maid of the Mist, which operates ongoing cruises to the base of the falls, were in business.

Live-wire acts, daredevil feats (the first person over in a barrel, Annie Taylor, took her spin in 1901) and genuine tragedies — such as the 1912 Ice Bridge accident when three died after the snowy mound at the falls' base suddenly broke apart — set the stage for the circus atmosphere that marks this as an original roadside attraction.

To stem exploitation, both sides of the falls were taken over by regional governments in the 1880s. Still, when you see hotels and office towers above the water, you can't help but wish they'd been buried in a wide swath of pristine national parkland.

Today, when people talk about the beauty of the falls, they are talking about the falls themselves, not necessarily what's around them.

On the Canadian side, arcades, casinos, 4-D and simulator rides, haunted houses and a giant Frankenstein's monster chowing down at Burger King creep up the three-block incline from the water known as Clifton Hill.

On a busy Saturday night, the street is nearly blocked by families — as big a market these days as love-struck newlyweds. Only the greenway along the falls and river themselves are protected as parkland. It's not until you get a few miles up the road, to the outskirts of Niagara-on-the-Lake, that a sense of rural charm sets in.

On the U.S. side, park jurisdiction pushes businesses back farther from the edge. But while the experience of the falls is more serene here, the town feels as if it's seen better days.

Not that visitors seem to care. About 8.4 million people visit the falls' U.S. overlooks annually, while up to 14 million will stop off at the Canadian side. About 2,000 will get marriage licenses in the area — and on the Canadian side that includes same-sex couples.

"I've been here two dozen times," said Hazen Meyers, 20, a student from nearby Hamilton, Ont., who brought his girlfriend to spend the day. "We were here two months ago, and we'll be back."

With good reason. The couple isn't engaged, he says. "Not yet."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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