Quick trip to Niagara Falls yesterday. I have to be honest: I don't love the Falls. I used to go often as a child (I grew up nearby, and my mother drove us over every time a cousin or out-of-town friend came to stay) so I do have happy memories. And they are certainly majestic... and the Niagara Parks Commission has done a wonderful job not mucking up the view with touristy gimmicks. Still, the number of people who have ended their lives there - in particular the one whom I knew and admired enormously - makes it difficult for me to see them as more than an awe-inspiring gravestone.
Which is probably why the boat at the top on the Canadian side, rusted and caught on rocks a perilously short distance from the edge, always fascinates me. How terrifying must it have been to be on that boat--decidedly not seeking death--in the last moments before the rocks intervened? And how desperate the rescue to get its passengers back on shore? It's so close to safety, close enough to see fear on the men's faces during their ordeal, and yet too far to stretch out a hand to help.
Well, you gotta love wikipedia, because now I know, and you can too.
1 comment:
Wow, kind of astonishing that it's still there! Though I guess it would be hard to salvage a wreck in those waters. (Yes, that's the daughter of a sea captain speaking -- it's the kind of thing I think about! :D)
Thanks for the interesting read!
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