These are connected with Goat Island and with one another by three
handsome bridges, affording a magnificent view of the Rapids, the best,
in fact, to be had from any point of observation. The scene presented
from the outer island, as you gaze up the river, upon the vast expanse
of foaming, turbulent water, seemingly threatening to overwhelm you and
the ground on which you stand, and yet dividing as it passes you, or
abating its fury as it reaches the shore at your feet, is one to fill
the soul with admiration and awe, as, perhaps, no other view can do. The
outlook from the bridges also awakens peculiar emotions. Standing only a
few feet above the rapidly coursing torrent as it passes beneath you,
the thought comes to the mind that here at least, “there is but a step
betwixt time and eternity.” The fascination increases as the gaze is
prolonged, and the mind which cannot be impressed with the sublimity of
the scene, must be, like the soul devoid of music, “fit for treason,
stratagem, and spoils.”
At the head of Goat Island, a little farther up the river, the view is
quite expansive, commanding both banks of the stream, and the islands in
the channel. Beginning at the right, the site of Fort Schlosser is seen
about a mile away, marked by a small white building and a very large
chimney. The name is associated with border history, the fort having
been built by the French, afterward ceded to the English, and occupied
as a military station by Captain Schlosser, from whom its later name was
derived, the French having given it the title of Little Fort.