The surface of Niagara River below the cataract is for some distance
comparatively calm, so that small boats can move about and pass almost
under the mass of descending waters. The deep and narrow gorge
stretches far to the north with two ponderous international railroad
bridges thrown across it in the distance, carrying over the Vanderbilt
and Grand Trunk roads. An electric road is constructed down the bottom
of the gorge on the American bank, and another along its top on the
Canadian side. The water flows with occasional eddies, its color a
brilliant green under the sunlight, the gorge steadily deepening, the
channel narrowing, and when it passes under the two railroad bridges,
which are close together, the river begins its headlong course down
the Lower Rapids leading to the Whirlpool. With the speed of an
express train, the torrent runs under these bridges, tossing, foaming
and rolling in huge waves, buffeting the rocks, and thus it rushes
into the Whirlpool. Viewed from the bottom of the gorge alongside the
torrent, the effect is almost painful, its tempestuous whirl and
headlong speed having a tendency to make the observer giddy. The
rushing stream is elevated in the centre far above the sides, the
waves in these rapids at times rising thirty feet, tossing wildly in
all directions, and coming together with tremendous force. Huge rocks,
fallen in earlier ages, evidently underlie the torrent. It was in
these terrible rapids that several daring spirits, and notably Captain
Webb in 1883, attempted, unprotected, to swim the river, and paid the
penalty with their lives. More recently these rapids have been safely
passed in casks, peculiarly constructed, although the passengers got
rough usage. The Whirlpool at the end of the rapids is a most
extraordinary formation. The torrent runs into an oblong pool, within
an elliptical basin, the outlet being at the side through a narrow
gorge not two hundred and fifty feet wide, above which the rocky walls
tower for three hundred feet. Into this basin the waters rush from the
rapids, their current pushing to its farthest edge, and then, rebuffed
by the bank of the abyss, returning in an eddy on either hand. These
two great eddies steadily circle round and round, and logs coming down
the rapids sometimes swim there for days before they are allowed to
get to the outlet. Upon the left-hand side of this remarkable pool the
eddy whirls around without obstruction, while that upon the right
hand, where the outlet is, rebounds upon the incoming torrent and is
thrown back in huge waves of mixed foam and green, the escaping waters
finally rushing out through the narrow opening, and on down more
brawling rapids to the end of the deep and wonderful gorge, and thence
in placid stream through the level land northward to Lake Ontario.