The Would-Have-Been Niagara Power Plant

Last week we saw "Niagara Stories". What I have concluded is that a hydroelectric plant was once intended to be built on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, about where the Rainbow Bridge is now located. The land for the necessary hydraulic canal was already secured, avoiding existing neighborhoods (sorry, neighbourhoods). The necessary cut in the rock strata for the raceway, the slope where the water would build up speed, had been done. 

But then the plans were cancelled, although I can find no record of this. The cancellation was likely because the first Sir Adam Beck plant would be built instead.  

Look at the following image from Google Earth. There is a strip of land 300 feet wide, this was before Canada converted to the Metric System, that is shaped roughly like a question mark. The bridge in the lower right is the Rainbow Bridge.

Following the red dots from the top, this section of the planned canal was used for the metal towers carrying the wires from the Sir Adam Beck plant. The towers don't show up well in the satellite imagery. Following two images from Google Earth and Street View. 

From there, following the yellow dots from left to right, is Falls Avenue or Highway 420. The following image looking east is from Google Earth. Stanley Avenue is at the bottom and Victoria Avenue is at the top. 

From there the raceway through the rock cut leads down to the Rainbow Bridge, as shown by the purple dots. This is known as Newman Hill. But the rock cut is completely unnecessary for the road. No other street up the slope down to the river has a rock cut. The rock cut was there well before the road to the Rainbow Bridge was built through it. The Rainbow Bridge was only built in the 1940s because the Honeymoon Bridge had collapsed. Image from Google Street View. This is cars lined up to the Rainbow Bridge. You can see how a cut through the rock has been made but it was there well before the road was built through it.

There was already a power plant in the Niagara gorge, which opened in 1905. I am sure that there was to be a second plant, but the plan was abandoned. This "question mark" showing on the landscape of the city is what remains.