Whirlpool Rapids and railroad bridges, Niagara Falls, NY, circa 1901

About this postcard

The view looks across the churning Whirlpool Rapids of the Niagara River toward the steel arch of a railway bridge spanning the gorge, with a train on the deck and spray rising from the water in the foreground. The Whirlpool Rapids are a fast, turbulent stretch of the lower Niagara downstream of the falls, and the railway crossings above the gorge carried trains between New York and Ontario. The arch bridge at the rapids, completed in 1897, carried trains on its lower deck and vehicles and pedestrians above. In the early 1900s the falls were a popular tourist destination, and views like this paired the rushing water with the bridge's steel arch.