The Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation ( the last ice age), about 10,000 years ago and water from the newly-formed Great Lakes caved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Niagara Falls is divided into the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls.
The enormous energy of Niagara Falls has long been recognized as a potential source of power. The world's first AC power generating and transmission plant was built at Ames, below Telluride, Colorado, by Westinghose, Tesla and L.L.Nunn. The most powerful hydroelectric stations on the Niagara River are Sir Adam Beck 1 and 2 on the Canadian side, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant on the American side. Niagar Falls has long been a source of inspiration for explorers, travelers, artists, authors, filmmakers, resident and visitors, few of whom realize that the falls were nearly to be solely devoted to industrial and commercial use.
Ships can bypass Niagara Falls by means of the Welland Canal, which was improved and incorporated into the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the middly 1950s. While the seaway diverted water traffic from nearby Buffalo and led to the demise of its steel and grain mills, other industries in the Niagara River valley flourished with the help of the electric power produced by the river. However, since the 1970s the region has declined econimically.
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