when niagra falls frozen

This interesting set of photographs of a frozen Niagara Falls circulates via email and has been posted to various blogs and online forums. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the photographs. While the falls almost never freeze solid, it is not uncommon for mounds of ice to form a thick crust that covers the running water beneath. Strange and beautiful ice formations can be formed as mist and falling water freeze over.

In colder winters, the crust of ice can even reach from bank to bank and extend for miles down the river. In earlier times, visitors often walked out on these "ice bridges" to view the falls as depicted in the first image above. However, in 1912, an ice bridge broke up and three visitors fell to their deaths. Henceforth, walking out on the ice bridges was considered too dangerous.