- I highly recommend visiting the niagara parks power station museum on the Canadian side - they have a very interesting exhibition of the old power plant. You can even go down to the old tunnel and walk through it to see how the water was diverted back into the river, fascinating stuff.
The Welland canal is also very interesting. There's something really cool about seeing a large ship moving _on_ a bridge while driving under that same bridge with a car. Also, the city of Welland has some nice bike trails iirc.
- Grady Hillhouse does such an amazing job of presenting engineering topics to the layperson very thoughtfully. I'm not an engineer, but I always get completely drawn into their videos even when it seems like something I would have no interest in.
I didn't know anything about the engineering surrounding the Niagara Falls region, but this latest video leaves me curious about how the two countries managed to work together in those early years, with all of the disputes and collaborations involved.
- I grew up close to Niagara Falls and my dad was a firefighter there for ~30 years who had to practice rappelling down the gorge to save people (which sadly happens too frequently).
His favorite story from the last time they "shut the falls off" was that they found tons of loose change in the rocks around the rapids - people were racing to get it and bringing back buckets of money. (Of course, they also found a few bodies as well...)
by comrade1234
3 subcomments
- I was at Niagara Falls a few years ago and it just seemed kind of weak. I mean, yes it was impressive but thinking about the rivers I know and have seen that empty just into Lake Superior, and multiplying that by all of the other rivers that empty into the great lakes, it just didn't seem like it was enough water.
And so I looked it up and it was correct. Almost all of the water that would go over the falls is redirected to power generation. A secondary good effect is that this reduces erosion of the falls - before this they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.
- So happy to see Practical Engineering on HN! One of my all time favourite channels. I implore anyone to go back through the back catalogue of seemingly mundane subject matter (sewers, for instance), you'll be surprised. Great channel, very well done.
by boriskourt
0 subcomment
- Grady is also on Nebula, its a very nice place to watch these if you like the video format. There are a few engineering creators on there that make really high quality work.
- There are quite a few documents about the building of the Niagara power plant at oldwoodward gallery:
http://www.oldwoodward.com/gallery/index.php?/search/psk-202...
If the search link doesn't work, search for Niagara in the photo gallery.
- This was a fun watch! I love in Ontario and go to the falls a few times per year. I just love looking at them and ponder about nature, and the scale of time.
It’s one of my favourite places to go, and definitely where I take anyone visiting from abroad.
- Really enjoy this YouTube channel. Things are being a bit phoned in on these “articles” though as it’s just a transcript of the video and references images and content that aren’t in the article, which makes it difficult to read.
by gregorymichael
0 subcomment
- What a great video. From the talk track, to the visuals, to the "flow", to the confident but accessible sprinkling of technical terms. Loved this.
Go Bills.
- While it's nice to have a transcript of a YouTube video, if the text says "this is a map of the isthmus", it would be a good idea to actually put the map on the page.
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