I had never been to Niagara Falls and with full disclosure I was both amazed and appalled at what met us. The feel of all that power of water flowing over the ridge and plunging to the pool below is amazing. We walked around both the American and Canadian falls. There are some photos of those sights. Shocking was the condition one finds in the city of Niagara Falls, buildings, homes, empty lots, closed factories all part of a sight so familiar to those of us who know of Gary, IN or Detroit, MI.
A highlight was the discovery of the Como Italian Restaurant in Niagara Falls, a gem of an old school eatery. In fact we went twice.
As depressing as parts of Niagara Falls, quite the difference feel is just twenty five miles away in Lockport, NY. This small town has embraced the Erie Canal and preserves it as the canal runs through the several locks that in the downtown. For our stay to visit the falls, we stayed at the Elks Lodge RV sites in Lockport.
We took a day to enjoy a canal ride that took us through the two locks, raising us fifty feet, twice – passing under the “widest bridge in the world” – actually a downtown parking lot, then under a railroad bridge, where the superstructure for the bridge was not above the railroad tracks as expected, but under. The idea was to create obstacles for the barge traffic, thus encouraging shippers to make use of that new transportation – the railroad.
It was fun to watch a workman drive his car one of several auto roads that crosses the canal, run up the stairs and activates the bridge to rise allowing our boat to pass below. He then would lower the bridge, run to his car and drive to the next bridge to repeat the process. This is a busy waterway, with a variety of pleasure boats using the canal. Certainly the workman keeps in shape.
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