The short answer is no, as noted in the FAQ blog article.  It is a very common misconception that the Niagara Falls has completely frozen solid.  So here is the long answer…

The day the falls was almost still.

The winter of 1847/1848 was unusually cold and in late March a series of warm weather and strong winds broke the Lake Erie ice up into countless floes.  A monstrous ice dam formed , preventing the lake water from taking their normal path to the north.  The American and Bridal Veil falls became nearly completely dry, while the Horseshoe Fall was reduced to a mere trickle of water.  The thunderous sound was silenced and the mist vanished.  Since then, there has been no other time in recordable history that nature has turned off the Falls.

Man on the other hand, have.  In the Summer and Fall of 1969 the American and Bridal Veil Falls were almost completely turned off by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  This was done for three reasons. 1. To determine if the erosion of the Falls could or should be controlled.  2. To decide if the removal of rocks/boulders at the base of the falls was desirable and possible. 3. To see if there were other things that could be done to preserve the beauty of the falls.  It was determined that the prevention of errosion and removal of the boulders would be too costly and unnatural.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.