Interesting Facts You Probably Never Knew About The Niagara River

Sometimes it's pretty cool to look at your own environment like a tourist. There are some amazing things that we see every day that we know so little about. For example, what do you know about the water that goes over Niagara Falls and the path it takes to get there?

Many of us drive right past the Niagara River every day. We drive down the 190 and only look at the water when traffic gets backed up. But when you look at it like a tourist, instead of someone who lives next to it every day, it's pretty interesting.

Today, I found this video on Facebook from NOAA that follows the path of the water from Lake Erie up the Niagara River. Here's the link to the interactive version.

Things you might not realize about the Niagara River

What I was really surprised about was how little I actually knew about the path. For example, did you know that traveling the entire length of the Niagara River from start to finish would take over 13 hours (if you could survive the Falls)? Also, one of the fastest parts of the river is the area right below the Peace Bridge where the river is squeezed down to about 1/3 of a mile wide. That current is running about 7 miles per hour through that area!

Most of the river misses Niagara Falls altogether

The part about how less than half of the water doesn't even go over the Falls was interesting too. Over half actually gets carried through tunnels and rivers around the outside and meets back up with the rest of the river later in its trip.

All these years, and who knew? Did you?