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Niagara Falls Trivia

Three waterfalls, one gorge, and a schoolteacher in a barrel.

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Which island separates Bridal Veil Falls from Horseshoe Falls?

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All 71 questions with answers

The three falls 14

  • A cave found behind Bridal Veil Falls in 1834 was first named after which Greek god? Answer: Aeolus. Source: Wikipedia: Cave of the Winds (New York)
  • After the power stations take their share, about how much of the water left in the river goes over the largest of the three falls? Answer: About 90 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Horseshoe Falls
  • Erosion has changed the outline of Horseshoe Falls from a small arch to a horseshoe bend. What shape does it have today? Answer: A V. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • How did Goat Island get its name? Answer: A miller kept a herd of goats on it. Source: Wikipedia: Goat Island (New York)
  • Terrapin Point, beside Horseshoe Falls, was once a group of rocks at the brink. Why were they called the Terrapin Rocks? Answer: They looked like giant tortoises. Source: Wikipedia: Terrapin Point
  • What did engineers do to the American Falls for several months in 1969? Answer: Stopped its flow with a temporary dam. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • What gives the water going over the falls its green color? Answer: Dissolved salts and rock flour. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
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The three falls, continued

  • What was Goat Island called before it got its present name? Answer: Iris Island. Source: Wikipedia: Goat Island (New York)
  • Which island separates Bridal Veil Falls from Horseshoe Falls? Answer: Goat Island. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Which of the three waterfalls at Niagara is the largest? Answer: Horseshoe Falls. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Which of the three waterfalls at Niagara is the smallest? Answer: Bridal Veil Falls. Source: Wikipedia: Bridal Veil Falls (Niagara Falls)
  • Which shelf of rock on the Canadian shore was the first major vantage point for tourists? Answer: Table Rock. Source: Wikipedia: Table Rock, Niagara Falls
  • Which tiny island lies between the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls? Answer: Luna Island. Source: Wikipedia: Luna Island
  • Who were the three sisters that the Three Sisters Islands are named after? Answer: Daughters of an early hotel keeper. Source: Wikipedia: Three Sisters Islands (New York)

The river and the gorge 15

  • An iron scow stuck on the rocks above Horseshoe Falls can still be seen. In which year did it run aground? Answer: 1918. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Scow
  • At the present rate of erosion, in about how many years would the falls reach Lake Erie and cease to exist? Answer: 50,000. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Because it joins two lakes, the Niagara River is occasionally described as what? Answer: A strait. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara River
  • Before there were bridges, what did people use in some winters to walk across the river below the falls? Answer: An ice bridge. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The falls were formed when what receded at the end of the last ice age? Answer: Glaciers. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • In December 1837 a steamboat moored at Schlosser's Landing was set on fire and sent over the falls, starting a quarrel between the United States and Britain. What was the boat called? Answer: The Caroline. Source: Wikipedia: Caroline affair
  • In which direction does the Niagara River flow? Answer: North. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara River
  • La Salle built Fort Conti in 1678 at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario. What is the fort on that site called? Answer: Fort Niagara. Source: Wikipedia: Fort Niagara
  • Niagara Gorge begins at the foot of the falls. Where does it end? Answer: At the escarpment near Queenston. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Gorge
  • On March 29, 1848, the falls ran dry, or down to a trickle, for as much as 40 hours. What had stopped the river? Answer: An ice jam. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • On which island in the river did William Lyon Mackenzie and his supporters proclaim a short-lived Republic of Canada in 1837? Answer: Navy Island. Source: Wikipedia: Navy Island
  • What often happens to the Niagara Whirlpool when more water is diverted to the power plants? Answer: It spins the other way. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Whirlpool
  • Which hard rock is the surface of the escarpment and the lip of the falls? Answer: Dolomite. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Gorge
  • Which is the largest island in the Niagara River? Answer: Grand Island. Source: Wikipedia: Grand Island, New York
  • The whirlpool formed where the retreating falls cut into what? Answer: An old river bed filled with loose rock. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Whirlpool

Power from the falls 13

  • A statue of which inventor stands at the Power Portal on Goat Island? Answer: Nikola Tesla. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The Adams Power Plant of 1895 was the first large-scale plant in the world to generate which kind of electricity? Answer: Alternating current. Source: Wikipedia: Adams Power Plant Transformer House
  • By 1896 power from the falls was being sent to which city, 20 miles away? Answer: Buffalo. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The first known use of the falls for power came in 1750, when Daniel Joncaire dug a small canal. What did it drive? Answer: A sawmill. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The hydroelectric power station at Lewiston, New York, is named for which New York City planner? Answer: Robert Moses. Source: Wikipedia: Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant
  • The Queenston-Chippawa plant in Ontario first produced power in 1922. After whom was it renamed in 1950? Answer: Sir Adam Beck. Source: Wikipedia: Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Stations
  • Under the treaty of 1950, when may the power stations take more water from the river? Answer: At night and in winter. Source: Wikipedia: International Control Dam
  • Under whose leadership was the river's first hydroelectric generating station built, in 1881? Answer: Jacob F. Schoellkopf. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • What do the two power authorities put out on the river each winter? Answer: A long ice boom. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • What does the International Control Dam, upstream of Horseshoe Falls, do? Answer: Shares the river between the falls and the power stations. Source: Wikipedia: International Control Dam
  • What happened to the Schoellkopf Power Station on June 7, 1956? Answer: Much of it collapsed into the gorge. Source: Wikipedia: Schoellkopf Power Station
  • When demand for electricity is low, what can the Lewiston units do? Answer: Pump water back up to the reservoir. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Which British scientist headed the International Niagara Commission of 1890, which studied how to expand power at the falls? Answer: Sir William Thomson. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls

Bridges, boats and views 14

  • About 1840 an English chemist made the earliest known photograph of the falls. What kind of photograph was it? Answer: A daguerreotype. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The first Maid of the Mist, launched in 1846, was built to be what? Answer: A ferry across the border. Source: Wikipedia: Maid of the Mist
  • How did Charles Ellet Jr. get the first line across the gorge for his temporary bridge of 1848? Answer: By kite. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
  • How was the steel arch that replaced the Suspension Bridge in 1897 built without stopping the trains? Answer: Around and below the old bridge. Source: Wikipedia: Whirlpool Rapids Bridge
  • In the years before the Civil War, which network helped people escape slavery across the Suspension Bridge to Canada? Answer: The Underground Railroad. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
  • The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge of 1855 was the first working suspension bridge in the world to carry what? Answer: Railway trains. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
  • The Peace Bridge, opened in 1927, joins Buffalo with which town in Ontario? Answer: Fort Erie. Source: Wikipedia: Peace Bridge
  • Tunnels at Table Rock, first opened in May 1889, let visitors look out from where? Answer: Behind Horseshoe Falls. Source: Wikipedia: Journey Behind the Falls
  • What brought down the Honeymoon Bridge on January 27, 1938? Answer: Ice piled against it. Source: Wikipedia: Honeymoon Bridge (Niagara Falls)
  • Which bridge, opened in 1941, crosses the river between Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York? Answer: The Rainbow Bridge. Source: Wikipedia: Rainbow Bridge (Niagara Falls)
  • Which engineer was hired to complete the Suspension Bridge after Charles Ellet Jr. left the project? Answer: John Augustus Roebling. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
  • Which landscape designer surveyed the falls for New York in 1879 and helped lead the campaign to make them a public park? Answer: Frederick Law Olmsted. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Which park on the Canadian side, opened in 1888, looks across at the falls? Answer: Queen Victoria Park. Source: Wikipedia: Queen Victoria Park
  • The Whirlpool Aero Car, a cable car over the whirlpool, was designed by an engineer from which country? Answer: Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Whirlpool Aero Car

Explorers and daredevils 15

  • A famous tightrope walker made his final crossing of the gorge on September 8, 1860. Who was watching? Answer: The Prince of Wales. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Bobby Leach went over the falls in a barrel on July 25, 1911. What was his barrel made of? Answer: Steel. Source: Wikipedia: Bobby Leach
  • Captain Matthew Webb died in 1883 while trying to swim the rapids of the gorge. What had made him famous? Answer: Swimming the English Channel. Source: Wikipedia: Matthew Webb
  • The first couple recorded as honeymooning at the falls came in 1801. Whose daughter was the bride? Answer: Aaron Burr's. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • The first person to ride a barrel over the falls and live did it on October 24, 1901. What else was that day for her? Answer: Her 63rd birthday. Source: Wikipedia: Annie Edson Taylor
  • Jean Lussier went over Horseshoe Falls on July 4, 1928, and lived. What was he riding in? Answer: A rubber ball. Source: Wikipedia: Jean Lussier
  • Maria Spelterini walked a rope across the gorge in July 1876. What did she wear on her feet on July 12? Answer: Peach baskets. Source: Wikipedia: Maria Spelterini
  • What was sent over the falls in the first barrel rider's barrel, days before she went in 1901, to test it? Answer: A cat. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Where did the tightrope walkers of the 1800s string their ropes? Answer: Across the gorge, below the falls. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Which American painter's Niagara of 1857, a view of Horseshoe Falls, confirmed him as the leading landscape painter of his day? Answer: Frederic Edwin Church. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara (Frederic Edwin Church)
  • Which missionary, who travelled with La Salle, is credited with the first description of the falls to reach Europe? Answer: Father Louis Hennepin. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara Falls
  • Who first crossed Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, on June 30, 1859? Answer: Charles Blondin. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Blondin
  • Who was the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and live? Answer: Annie Edson Taylor. Source: Wikipedia: Annie Edson Taylor
  • Whom did the first tightrope walker to cross the gorge carry over on his back? Answer: His manager. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Blondin
  • William Leonard Hunt became a rival tightrope walker at the gorge. Under which stage name? Answer: The Great Farini. Source: Wikipedia: William Leonard Hunt

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license), and the passage that states each fact was found in that article on October 14 or 15, 2026 before the question was kept. 39 articles are linked. The pack is the falls as geography and dated history: the three falls and their islands, the river and its gorge, the power stations, the bridges and the stunts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. No living person is an answer or a choice, no visitor count or record that a season changes is asked, and the years in which the falls first formed are not asked because the articles give them differently. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits a curious adult, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read. Licence: own work

How it works

Which of the three falls is the smallest, and what stopped the river for 40 hours in 1848? This Niagara Falls trivia covers the rock, the water, the power stations, the bridges and the people who crossed on a rope.

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The falls, the river and the power

The three falls asks which island divides them and why the water runs green. The river and the gorge has a whirlpool that can change direction and the day an ice jam stopped the falls. Power from the falls runs from a sawmill of 1750 to alternating current.

Bridges and daredevils

Bridges, boats and views has the kite that carried the first line across the gorge. Explorers and daredevils has Blondin's rope, Maria Spelterini's peach baskets and the schoolteacher who rode a barrel over on her 63rd birthday.

  • On the drive to the falls, play The three falls in the car and check the answers from the railing.

Questions and answers

What are some fun facts about Niagara Falls?

The falls stopped for as much as 40 hours in March 1848, when an ice jam blocked the river. The water is green from dissolved salts and rock flour. A cat rode the first barrel over, days before its owner did.

How many waterfalls make up Niagara Falls?

Three: Horseshoe Falls, the largest, the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, the smallest. Goat Island lies between Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, and tiny Luna Island between Bridal Veil Falls and the American Falls.

Who was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel?

Annie Edson Taylor, a schoolteacher, on October 24, 1901, her 63rd birthday. Her barrel was oak and iron, padded with a mattress. Afterward she said that no one ought ever to do that again.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 14 or 15, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked beside it, 39 articles in all. The years in which the falls first formed are not asked, because the articles give them differently, and no living person is an answer.

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