Power Vista

The last post I'll share from our vacation is about our trip to the Power Vista. The United States and Canada have an agreement to divert about half the water that would otherwise flow over Niagara Falls and use it to create power.

These two photos show what these mammoth concrete structures look like on the US and Canadian sides of the Niagara River. I thought it was incredible to learn that the concrete was formed from the rocks blasted out of the sides of the gorge.

On the US side, they have a visitors center, called Power Vista. Inside is a museum and hands-on learning center. Considering that King J is a Master Electrician, he was in 7th heaven. My dad is a retired engineering project manager for a boiler manufacturer. The two of them were like little boys exploring.

We did attempt to indroduce the concepts of hydro-electric power generation to Princess E. She was much more interested in riding in the bucket truck to "work" on the overhead transmission lines, or climbing up the pole to check out the transformer. I'm thinking that next time, I should probably crop the photo so her feet aren't showing. Ha!

Anyway, I learned more about electricity generation than I had known before. This facility produces about 10% of the electricity for the State of New York...just by harnessing the force of the water moving along the Niagara River. Amazing!