This Is What Scientists Found at the Bottom of the Niagara Falls That Left Them so Disturbed

this is what scientists found at the bottom of niagara falls that left them so disturbed but before we start please make sure to subscribe to did you know and hit the bell so you never miss an upload from us also leave a like right now back in the summer of 1969 a group of engineers had found the long hidden secret of niagara falls the moment they realized how to stop them from flowing they ventured upon succeeding in it yet no one was afraid of the unknown from beneath and they should have been you might think this was a mission impossible to stem the flow of niagara falls but for these scientists nothing was impossible so then in 1969 its hidden gems were about to get revealed keep watching to find out what these scientists discovered whether you first seen the niagara falls in person or in a video you were surely amazed by its vastness now millions of tourists visit it every year and post their pictures on social media facebook instagram twitter many of them even writing blogs and making vlogs about the falls explaining their personal impressions and excitement surely words cannot describe everything nor can camera depict the real sensations one can get at the actual site so everyone should visit niagara falls at least once in their lives still the site wasn't as amazing five decades ago when the scientists decided to investigate it when scientists decided to look behind the scenes of niagara falls they had no clue what might be dwelling underneath the moment they announced what their plans were the public eye was set upon them many people wanted to witness this extraordinary moment in history tempering nature is always a challenge so many wondered if these people could really do it were their plans based on real possibilities or just wishful thinking still the moment the amount of water in the fall started to recede these spectators trust and scientists started to grow back in the past well about 18 000 years in the past to be precise niagara falls didn't exist they were formed when ice sheets came from the north pole leaving behind the great areas of landscape known as north america it was not until the huge chunks of ice melted that the falls came into existence upon the melting of the glaciers the vast amount of water was sent into the niagara river the falls didn't form immediately a lot of time had to pass to let the water erode the cliffs and thus form the falls as we know them today today niagara falls stands as a natural border between two similar but very different countries canada and the united states even though they've been visited by many people from around the world it's not known how long ago they started getting their visitors maybe it was thousands of years ago or even much earlier than that we can only assume that the locals were enjoying their beauties long before the world found out about them there are no written records about their first visitors nor about the first domestic admirers what's actually known is that many different indigenous communities lived in their neighborhood there are written records saying that the first person from europe who heard about niagara falls was an explorer from france named samuel de champlain that was somewhere at the beginning of the 17th century still he was not the first one from europe to go there and visit the falls on the other hand not until 1678 did anyone from europe go and see the falls in person the man that did that was father louis hennepin who went to niagara falls in search of new france at least that was the name they gave to this part of north america five years after he returned from the falls father lewis hennepin put his thoughts and impressions on paper he wrote a new discovery article in which the name of the falls first appeared so basically as a term niagara falls came into existence in the year 1683 the name came from the word angiara an iroquoian word which actually means the straight upon publishing this article father lewis hennepin became famous as the first person from europe who saw niagara falls after that many visitors from europe came to see the beauty they read about not until the 1800s to niagara falls become a tourist destination so basically about 200 years after its discovery the first tourists from europe came to see and admire the vastness of the amazing waterfalls at this time the first serious business people hoteliers mostly realized the full potential of the place so they started making lucrative investments on the land around the waterfalls even at its beginning as a tourist destination niagara falls lured honeymooning couples to its site and it's remained a favorite destination of newlywed couples even today the only difference is that in the 1800s there were few places where people could spend their money and today everything's overpriced not only did the people who wanted to enjoy their free time and relax a bit come to niagara falls no even serious industrialists had seen the good side of the site they realized a huge potential the falls had and still have even today they realized they could make use of the waterfall to power their factories and also their mills at the end of the 19th century the world's first hydroelectric generating station was built near niagara falls it soon started producing a great amount of electricity which could be put into use even though the new hydroelectric generating station was a revolutionary invention it wasn't able to carry electricity to long distances only up to 300 feet this was not a good thing so something had to be improved but no one knew how one day nikola tesla came and made a huge impact on the world we know today what does this actually mean well this man found a way to send electricity to long distances by the use of alternating current at first as an experiment the electricity was sent as far as buffalo new york was about 20 miles distance from the power plant even though this invention was made more than 100 years ago it still works the way it did at the time tesla lived it's as important today as it was in previous entries after all what electricity is better than the electricity produced from renewable sources today these waterfall power plants produce more than 2 million kilowatts of power in this century it's become even more significant than in previous centuries since the cities have become overpopulated and polluted only the energy produced from renewable sources like water wind the sun can save us from our own destructive nature since niagara falls is a natural border between canada the usa it naturally belongs to both countries from both sides it gets more than 15 million tourists per year or more than 30 million tourists in total yearly so basically both countries share the benefits these waterfalls provide to them at the falls six million cubic feet run down in one minute amazing right just imagine what damage could that much water make if led outside the falls it could ruin entire cities you know the saying goes water and fire are dangerous servants but fearful masters believe it or not the amount of water in niagara falls changes during nights it happens that there's less water in the falls during nights how's that possible you might wonder well because of the human factor it's not something that happens normally and naturally in fact this situation is such that the local companies are allowed to take more water from the falls at night back in the 1950s a treaty was signed allowing local companies to take more water at night because there are not many tourists there and even those who come at the site would notice the difference do you wonder what happens with the falls during cold winter months can a waterfall freeze when the temperatures fall below zero degrees celsius or 32 degrees fahrenheit actually the falls partially freeze at some places but the flow never stops at least not because of low temperatures that's for sure one other thing that happens during the winter months but also during other seasons is that a certain amount of water turns into the clouds of vapor have you seen that site when there's water only at the upper part of the falls and beneath there's only huge clouds it's amazing even though technically speaking niagara falls belong to both canada and the usa there are some parts of it that belong only to the united states of america the american falls and the bridal veil falls are solely american parts of niagara falls on the other hand there is no part that belongs only to the canadian side the biggest part that actually represents the natural border between the countries is called horseshoe falls on which side of the border have you been while visiting niagara falls only people who visit niagara falls often can see the changes this waterfall experiences during time with every new gallon of water that goes down the cliffs the falls lose a bit of its charm well at least that's according to the citizens of new york who live near the falls and visit them regularly for every new visitor of the site the falls has been astonishingly beautiful whether it was a hundred years ago or a day ago still there is the problem that some stones accumulate at the fall's bottom which might cause some problems in the future since the concerns of the new york citizens living at the falls reached both american and canadian authorities an organization that takes care of the shared waters was contacted the name of that organization is the international joint commission since the americans were concerned about the american falls they were those who suggested that something had to be done with the accumulated rocks at the bottom of the waterfalls even the us army corps of engineers was asked for their expert opinion on the matter since there were no other solutions for the problem of the accumulated rocks at the bottom of the cataract the engineers decided to shut it down well this was just temporary until they removed all the stones and earth from beneath the water in the summer of 1969 more than one thousand trucks carried rocks and earth to the falls just to stop the flow and to clear the area beneath the cliffs the loads were being dumped upstream of the waterfalls for three days what do you think did they succeed in stopping niagara falls from flowing let's see a cofferdam was a temporary structure the engineers made at niagara falls between the mainland and goat island it was constructed of 27 000 tons of rock and earth brought to the site by around 1200 trucks the total length of the structure was 600 feet or 182.88 meters what do you think did these loads of rock and earth stop the water going towards the falls did the water perhaps flood the island between the horseshoe and bridalveil falls called goat island let's see what happens next as you can see from the picture the engineers did succeed in their endeavors to prevent water from going towards the american falls the water was redirected from there towards the horseshoe falls thus the waters that were tumbling down the cliffs of niagara falls were silenced for some time actually only the waters of the american falls were stopped because it wasn't possible to stop the whole niagara falls at the same time we already realized there are three different waterfalls within niagara falls so that enormous amount of water had to go somewhere there were two main concerns the locals had regarding this operation first of all they were afraid of the waters because it's always dangerous to block the natural path a river has so what if the waters didn't obey and flooded their land the second concern was about the tourists they were afraid that the lack of water would cause a decrease in the number of people who would want to come and see the falls on the other hand others thought the exact opposite that this unique opportunity to see what was hiding beneath the falls would attract the number of people they couldn't handle yes unfortunately the drying up of the american falls resulted in the loss of a significant number of tourists at the end of the year that is 1969 the number of tourists who came to see the rocks without the water was lower than the numbers from the previous years when the falls were at their fullest volume nevertheless the people who did come to visit niagara falls during the summer months of 1969 had a unique opportunity to take something from the site and bring it home some took rocks while others who were luckier got amazing coins from the riverbed while planning this operation and executing it no one could even dream of finding anything so gruesome as skeletons while the water was receding these spectators noticed some bones beneath the water at the time it wasn't clear whether the bones belonged to some ill-fated people or perhaps there were some big animals which drowned in the waters of the river one thing was for sure it was better if there were not so many tourists because that awful scene would prevent them from coming to niagara falls ever again the first two skeletons the engineers stumbled upon were of a man and a woman after they were examined it turned out that the man met his death by jumping into the waters of niagara falls still they didn't give the year of his death as far as the woman's skeleton's concerned no other possible causes of death were visible apart from drowning it was speculated that the woman witnessed her lover drown and decided to meet him in death at the same spot as the waters receded more skeletons emerged from beneath apparently in the past this site was a place where many people decided to say goodbye to this world still this fashion isn't only related to pastimes the experts in the matter say that even today every year about 40 people come here to commit suicide it's understandable why suicidal people have always been attracted by this place once you jump into the falls nothing can save you well maybe only a miracle would do the trick no human arm can fight the cold and vicious waters not only suicidal people lost their lives in the waters of niagara falls in the past there were many accidents in which some people accidentally fell and disappeared even some stunt people came here to make their own shows and try to do the impossible to jump from the cliffs into the water and then swim towards the shore of course this was never possible nor will it be since the water is fierce and no human can defeat it so if you know someone who plans to do it please share with them this video and make them change their mind believe it or not back in 1901 a woman by the name of annie edson taylor did something not many people would even think of this 63 year old teacher decided to become famous and connected to her favorite place on earth in a special way she entered a big wooden barrel trapped herself in it and asked some people to throw the barrel from the shore into the falls yes she did survive but her experience was so bad that she said it was a bad decision and that no one should ever again do such a crazy thing still there are some people who followed her steps some succeeded others unfortunately lost their lives carl saucick was a canadian stuntman who back in 1984 did the same thing as annie edson taylor and survived after some time he decided to repeat the stunt in the houston astrodome in texas but unfortunately this time he wasn't so lucky jesse sharp an american stunt man wanted to travel down the falls in his canoe and did it but no one ever saw him after that some speculations say he survived but that's unlikely because he would probably appear somewhere publicly to boast about his achievement those people who were present while niagara water started receding were telling stories about their personal feelings about the findings beneath they said they enjoyed the site but were also afraid of the unimaginable power the waters had at one point they believed they would break the dam and an action of revenge for being tamed upon spotting the skeletons they described how small and fragile they felt upon those immortal omnipotent and unpredictable waters even the engineers who took that operation on their backs admitted that they didn't know it would have been such a difficult undertaking before embarking on this undertaking the engineers didn't know all the facts but now when they saw the exact situation on the spot they decided to change their plans what they didn't know beforehand was that the rocks beneath the waters were supporting the cliff so removing the rocks would probably have destroyed the whole place putting aside all the hard work they had to do by removing the rocks this new aspect was more important than all the previous assumptions they simply couldn't remove the rocks without making huge damages to the site and that was it but what after all this work had already been done did they simply leave everything as it were when they realized that removing the rocks was actually a bad idea they decided to build a permanent dam instead still even that solution wasn't a perfect one since the dam would have weakened the american falls finally they gave up on that idea also so the engineers didn't remove the talus nor build the dam but was the whole operation conducted in vain well yes and no at the same time of course they did realize the significance of the rocks below the falls and also found the bones of many people who died there but still what was to be done with the look of the waterfalls was there anything else they could do when they'd already made the efforts and made the falls waterless for some time for six months in 1969 niagara falls didn't have water well actually only the american part of the falls so-called american falls the engineers worked on stabilizing the waterfalls for future generations even though there was a real danger of landslide it didn't happen the experts had introduced the landslide sensor to alert the people if the ground started moving fortunately they knew what they were doing and no mistakes were allowed numerous bolts cables and anchors were built in the cliffs of the falls the cofferdam between goat island and the mainland was destroyed in november 1969 by dynamite that exact moment when the dynamite went off the huge amount of water hurried along its old route reviving niagara falls the previous worries the citizens from the small city of niagara falls had now proved unneeded since the tourists again started coming in flocks it was good that nothing had actually been changed by this huge job the engineers had done still the falls proved to be stronger than anyone imagined though the absence of waters from the falls didn't change anything about the falls what it actually made a huge impact on the falls was the development of the industry generally this newly developed area of human work had influenced the whole world in some way but nature suffered the most the businesses which used the power of the waterfalls for their personal purposes also changed downstream well it happened in every step of its development apparently industry couldn't let nature work on its own without marring it in some way since the development of the industry interfered with the conservation works the falls something had to be done to regulate these two independent fields not to affect each other while the experts cared only for the beauty of the falls the businessmen cared only for the production of power while the industrials were taking more and more water from the site the nature experts noticed that and complained then they all asked for a debate in order to find a mutually acceptable solution the industrials believed that they were actually helping niagara falls by limiting the amount of water that goes over the cliff they thought that the less water there was in the falls the slower the erosion would have been the truth was that the erosion did happen at a rate of four and a half feet per year so according to the industrials the less water there was in the falls the slower the erosion would be this makes sense but did that really happen that way were the facts saying in favor of this belief let's see since neither canadian nor american officials wanted for their industry to stagnate they decided to agree with the business people they accepted their point of view but was that the right thing to do were they working towards destroying this natural beauty this would be known in the years to come but since niagara falls exists even today and attracts millions of tourists from around the world to its coasts we can say that they made the right decision the industry continued with its development and the natural beauty remained the same since the two countries cooperated quite well on the matters related to this mutual gift from nature they also agreed on an innovative solution for the industrials since at night and in winter months there are fewer tourists they agree that factories can use up to 75 of the water from the falls during the days of spring summer and autumn the amount of water the industries could take was up to 50 no more than that what was also allowed was for the industrials to change the lip of horseshoe falls that way they made an amazing illusion of a powerful flow well not much is different today all the points they agreed upon back in the 19th century and recognized even today are all the tourists that come to the falls more than once can say that they're always the same maybe at some point in the future some experts will again decide to dry the falls to simply check what's beneath since this checkup already happened in the past we can predict what's there beneath more stones piled up high some coins and unfortunately many skeletons it's estimated that around 40 people lose their lives in niagara falls in a year an announcement was made back in 2016 by the niagara frontier state park commission saying that their plans include checking the bottom of the falls in the near future we can hardly wait for that to happen we hope there will be some live streaming for the social media users interested to look beyond what do you think what other waters should be temporarily dried out simply to check what secrets their riverbeds hide we can only assume what could be found at the bottoms of other waterfalls rivers or even seas what are your thoughts [Music]

Channel: Did You Know ?

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Keywords: Did You Know, facts verse, niagara falls, niagara falls drained, bottom of niagara falls, niagra falls drained, draining niagara falls, niagra falls, drained niagara falls, horseshoe falls, niagara falls dry, niagara falls to be shut off, dewater american falls, going over niagara falls, man falls in niagara falls, draining niagara falls 1969, falling into niagara falls, drain niagara falls, niagara falls collapse, niagra falls dry, niagara falls history

Id: ygMRl2ObFtc

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020