Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

WATER-POWER STATIONS OF NIAGARA FALLS. 309 In the world, extending for a distance of 1,935 feet under tho bed of Niagara River and through the wall of rock over which plunges the Horse-shoe cataract. The company built it with no other object than that of getting rid of water which had served its purpose after passing through the turbines. They had no intention of making it a “ side show ” for the benefit of visitors to the Falls ; but this nevertheless it has become, and a very re- markable and attractive one it proves. Hung from the roof of this tunnel is a “ visitors’ gallery,” along which, 158 feet beneath the river bed, yet all the while over- looking a torrent of mighty A Unique wafers the future traveller Tunnel. may wend his way to the very interior of the Falls. In front of the tunnel’s mouth, but 60 feet distant from the face of the rock, falls a curtain of water, the intervening space filled with VIEW OF POWER-TRANSMISSION LINES. (Photo, Ontario Power Co. of Niagara Falls.') CONTROL ROOM IN DISTRIBUTING STATION, THE ONTARIO POWER COMPANY OF NIAGARA FALLS. clouds of blinding spray, hurled about with terrifying fury. Surely such a spectacle, ac- companied by the deafening roar of thousands of tons of water plunging overhead, in front and at his feet, must satisfy the most exigent of visitors craving for new sensations. Not the least interesting feature in the design of this remarkable tunnel is the allowance made by the engineers for the wearing away, or recession, of the crest of the Falls. This aver- ages, in the centre, two and a half feet a year. Throughout their length, ex- cept in the last 300 feet of the outlet, the tunnels are lined with 2 feet of concrete faced with brick. Under the Falls, how- ever, this is superseded by concrete rings in 6-foot sections, which are expected to break away as the crest recedes. The power-house of the Electrical Development Company is a handsome building in the style of the Italian Renaissance, about 500 feet long and 70 feet wide. In it are installed eleven generators, delivering three-phase alter- nating current of 12,000 volts. On the top of the bluff outside the Queen Victoria Park limits is the trans- former house, accommodating fifteen 2,670-kilowatt transformers, wound for 10,000, 11,000, and 12,000 volts prim- ary, and 60,000, 50,000, and 40,000 volts secondary. Connecting it with the power-house, about 1,820 feet distant, are four underground conduits.