We visited Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite in March 1999. The closer we came to the falls, the more spray there was. When we got near enough, we were drenched with rain. What a contrast from the pictures with the thin stream of water cascading down hundreds of feet.
So too would Niagara Falls be a 'waterfall spraycation' experience if it hadn't been for the chiselling of the edge to change the water flow over the lip. It was reapportioned to create the impression of volume with an uninterrupted curtain of water. That was in the early 1950s following the hydroelectric dam US/Canada diversion treaty.
How did they accomplish this? They did many things - reducing the crest by several hundred feet, chiseling out the v-shaped notch in the riverbed. Islands and shoals were removed, others added. Did they turn off the water flow after they built the control dam and hydropower intakes? It doesn't say what they did in the 1950s.
In 1969 the water was reduced to a trickle for engineering work - the pictures of the dry falls can be seen HERE. They call it 'dewatering'. Here's more about the process in 1969 HERE. The quote from the head of the workers: "Our geologists are in a dream world". Scrolling through the second link reveals the kind of work and shows what it looked like. This is a personal chronicle website so is full of information.
My interest today comes out of a Globe and Mail article this morning on the subject of engineering the Falls to make it an attractive sight and more productive hydro-electric source of power.
I hadn't realized that there's been a lot of cosmetic surgery to make the flow of the water over the edge so fabulous.
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