Rainbow Bridge and Niagara Falls

I've probably mentioned this in my blog a number of times, but my absolute favorite part about traveling are those minutes as you approach a site of major interest and you expect it to be just around the corner. As it comes into view, after a lifetime of waiting, and 15 hours of driving, you can feel that awe come over you as that place officially becomes a part of you. I swear that the road to Niagara Falls was built to maximize the suspense of approaching one of North America's most incredible natural wonders. The waterfall(s) flow down from the United States side into Canada. Because of this, the view from across the river in Niagara Falls, Canada is much better than from above the falls in Niagara Falls, New York. We checked into our hotel on the US side of the falls, got our passports and Zoe's cute little passport card at the ready, and headed to Rainbow Bridge.

This has got to be the coolest bridge ever, it spans the valley carved by the waterfalls and provides a spectacular view...of the mist being churned up, thus prolonging the anxiety and transforming this arch bridge into one of suspension. Before Rainbow Bridge was built in 1941 there was another bridge 500 feet closer to the waterfalls called Honeymoon Bridge. This bridge was of such shoddy construction that when a parade passed over it in 1925 the in-step marching of the band caused the bridge to sway nearly unto collapse. Nearly 13 years later, on January 27th, 1938 huge ice chunks smacked into the pillars supporting Honeymoon Bridge and knocked the thing clean over. Crazy! The pieces of Honeymoon Bridge are still at the bottom of the river.

After passing by the border guards we finally got on the road that runs alongside the Niagara River and wow! I have never seen something that amazing. Wow! You have got to see this place before you die! We forked out our dollars, parked the car, and stood there mesmerized by the falls. Luckily Sara was very adamant that Zoe not fall over the edge, so my hypnosis from the flow of the falls did not impede my ability to keep that little monkey from climbing over the wall. Sara had spent a lot of the time en route to Niagara Falls reminding me that the scene in Superman when the little boy is rescued from toppling over the falls by the Man o' Steel was only fiction. It's gettin' late, I best be saving the rest of my Niagara Falls ramblings for another day.