American falls going dry

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Tourist hoping to catch a glimpse of a dry Niagara Falls will have to wait until 2019, at the earliest. At a public hearing last night the New York Parks Department says there is no funding yet for the bridge replacement project that would involve shutting down the U.S side of Niagara Falls at an estimated cost of $42 million.

The New York state parks department wants to replace two 115 year old bridges that gives pedestrians access to Goat island. The project could leave the two falls dry for up to nine months. Water from the Niagara river would be rerouted over the Canadian Horseshoe falls.

It wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. side of the Niagara Falls went dry. The bare bones of the falls were first exposed in 1969, so the U.S. Army crops of engineers could study how the rocks beneath were eroding and the phenomenon sparked a mini-tourism boom.

The flow of the Niagara river is controlled by Ontario Power Generation and the New York Power Authority, they say an disruption to the falls won’t have an impact on generating energy.