How the Falls boat rides began
Seven generations of boats named Maid of the Mist have served visitors to Niagara Falls for almost 170 years. The vessels, first steamboats and now diesel-powered, have outlasted business reverses, panics and depressions, Civil War and two world conflicts, and continue to provide poncho-wearing visitors with an often wet but always exhilarating sightseeing adventure around the base of the greatest waterfalls in the world. The iconic Niagara Falls experience has been enjoyed by millions of families, lovers and honeymooners and visiting royalty and heads of governments.
Month: July 2015
The skylon Tower
How the Tower was built
The Skylon Tower is one of the most recognizable attractions of the Niagara Falls area, but is also important because it was one of the first high-rise towers with a revolving restaurant, which are now widely distributed around the world, and was one of the first proving grounds for the construction methods that would allow the tallest buildings in the world to be erected. Although now surrounded by and integrated into a large tourist area thoroughly of the late 20th and early 21st century, the Skylon Tower still conveys a sense of the 1960s and 1970s, a time of great excitement in the tourism and high-rise construction industries.
Niagara Falls Illuminations
Lights over Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls represents one of the most spectacular sights in North America, and in fact in the world. The spectacle is even more remarkable at night, when the cascading waters are lit by various colors and styles of light, and frequently by fireworks as well. Illumination of the Falls began in 1860, when English electrical engineer Robert W. Blackwell proposed to celebrate a visit to the Falls by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, with Bengal lights, signal flares used for illumination and communication and particularly important in sea rescue.
The Citadelle of Quebec
Three Hundred Years of History
The Citadelle of Quebec City describes itself as “a fortress, a regiment, a museum”. It is an active Canadian military installation, the official residence in Quebec of the Governor-General of Canada and of Queen Elizabeth II in her capacity as Queen of Canada, part of the Fortifications of Quebec National Historical Site and the museum of the 22nd Royal Canadian regiment, the only French-language regiment in the Canadian Forces. More than 200,000 people visit the citadel and its fortifications annually, and Quebec is one of only two cities in North America still surrounded by fortifications, the other being Campeche, Mexico.
Grand Canyon Skywalk
Located on the western site of the Grand Canyon Skywalk is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Grand Canyon area. While it is widely visited, it is does not form part of the Grand Canyon National Park. The skywalk is a cantilever bridge on the western side of the Grand Canyon. It is a huge tourist attraction. The skywalk is located at height of 4470 feet above sea level and the vertical drop just below the cantilever is at least 500 feet. The skywalk was sanctioned by the Hualapai tribe that also owns it. This cantilever that opened to the public in 2007 can be accessed by the Grand Canyon West Airport. By road it is at least 190km from the city of Las Vegas.
The Yosemite National Park
The Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park managed by the National Park Service. It spans three counties in the Northern part of the State of California which are Madera, Mariposa and Tuolumne. The park which strides right to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain is at least one million square miles. There are at least three million visitors that visit the area each year and most of these will spend time in the Yosemite Valley.While about 95 per cent of the area is said to be a desert, it is a haven of granite cliffs, waterfalls, and great biological diversity. Yosemite which is among the least fragmented blocks of the Sierra Nevada was paramount to the area being declared a national park.
CN Tower
The CN Tower is the symbol of Toronto in the same way that the Eiffel Tower symbolizes Paris and the Statue of Liberty means New York to most people. Its original name was the Canadian National Tower, after the railway company that built it; it has also been referred to as Canada’s National Tower, but this name is less frequently used. The tower was built by the Canadian National Railway as a radio and TV facility, but when the railway was privatized in 1995 it divested itself of non-rail assets and the tower was transferred to the Canada Lands Company, a federal government real estate development entity.
Hoover Dam
Building Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam is one of the great tourist sites of America’s south west, and was one of the 20th century’s greatest engineering projects. Originally called Boulder Dam, it was renamed for Herbert Hoover, President when construction was begun and himself a famous engineer. The dam created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, and is today visited by more than a million people a year. Hoover Dam is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which maintains a Visitor Center and offers tours of the dam and power plant.
Corning Glass Museum
The Corning Museum of Glass is one of the world’s largest collections related to glass history, technology and art. Located in Corning, New York, approximately 250 miles from New York City and 125 miles from Buffalo, the museum was opened in 1951 in celebration of the centennial of the famous glass works that was founded in that city, and that is now a world-wide presence in the glass and ceramics industries under the name of Corning International. The museum originally occupied a low-slung glass-walled building designed in the International Style by Wallace Harrison, famous for Lincoln Center, LaGuardia Airport and the Museum of Modern Art.
Statue of Liberty Cruises
History of Lady Liberty
The Statue of Liberty symbolizes New York City in the way that the Eiffel Tower means Paris and Big Ben instantly evokes London. The figure of “Liberty Enlightening the World” was a gift from the people of France, although the American people were expected to pay for and erect the pedestal. Construction of the statue began in 1876 in France, and in 1884 work commenced on the pedestal on Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor. The statue was presented to U.S. Minister Levi P. Morton on July 4, 1884 and then disassembled and shipped to New York; it arrived about a year before the pedestal was ready, but the statue was rapidly erected when that was finished, and the dedication on October 28, 1886 was marked by cannon salutes, fireworks and the cheers of a million New Yorkers despite fog and drizzle.