The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-03-01
NIAGARA'S ICE BRIDGE
How the Glacier Is Fern d-A Hard Ro;
for Smusglers.

How the Glacier is Form d-A Hard Road
for Smu.glers
The great ice bridge across the Niagara
river is just now attracting much attention
and drawing thousands of visitors from
near and far. Most of whom have only q
faint idea of what the bridge is like, OF
where it is, whether above or below the
cataract, or whether it is arched or flat
Many people suppose that it is a formation
spanning the great chasm from cliff to cliff
beneath the arch OF which the torrent OF
the river PUSHES. How such phenomenon
could form at a height OF 200 feet
above the surface of the water thew
do not stop to think. The first view
OF the bridge, like the first view
OF the falls, is to many peonle
disappointing Walking out upon the new
suspension bridge which hangs across the
gorge few hundred yards below the
American fall, and reaching the point
whence the parachute man took his success.
iul Hight into the water, marked by a little
platform OF three planks outside the
paIapet' one can take in the whole scenery
OF the falls at a glance. The familiar view
the masses of ice which cover every object
within the reach of the spray, Below is
the ice bridge-no arch, no huge buttresses
oil cleaning ice, no crystal piers of pris.
matte colors dancing about them? Nothing
but great expanse of somewhat rough and
seam-marked ice at the level Of the river
and stretching from shore to shore-iust
what any frozen river LOOKS like, and nothing
more.
But what is that black spsck moving
along the edge of the river at the foot of the
preclpice on the Canadian side? A rat? A
dog? No, full.grown man setting out to
cross the river on that level plain of slightly
roughened leo He climbs, slowly, labori.
ously, now p3using to look about him, now
plunging into chasm no bigger than ones
nat, apparently and now implicitly hidden
by what looks like SNOWFALL cast from the
moor OF horse upon the street am look
ing upon the passage of traveller across
the glacier / realize now the immense
distance am from him. That chasm into
which he entered was fifteen or twenty
feet wide and as many deep. That
SNOWFALL which hid him from view. was
half as big as the enormous stone tower of
the suspension bridge. The scene takes on
new Interest, The traveller picks his way
among the hills and valleys OF the ice
bridge; Surely that plunge must have
iaken him into the wafer But no, The
deepest rent in that vast expanse only goes
down twenty or thirty feet. The water ia
forty or fifty feet below that Seventy feet
thick and more is yon Ter ice and daily
growing. thicker. The traveller sits down in
the middle Of the Niagara river to rest. He
mas MS nat OIL and is actually tanning him
sell with II. His exertiOns in clamhering
and slipping and plunging over aud among
those masses of ice warmed him up pretty
r'
Looking toward the cataract one sees Mt
the base OF the American fall the ice
mouutain-a mole hill ut this distance
Ihere come some moes out OF the lower
end OF that Recommended burroW, which Is
the covered stairway and inclined railway
rom the top OF the preciplce to the rivers
edge. These moles, who walk upright on
two legs, slowly climb the mole hill, which
is nall the height OF the falls, whose DASH
ing spray has formed it. They arrive at
the summit and point out TO each other
with their minute arms, the stupendous
iall that that thunders on one side and that
vast and silent expanse stretching its I'M.
heaVed ana corrugated surface on the other
Meanwhile the traveller has ceased tanning
himself In the middle o. the river. and has
his journey toward the American
SIDE one sees here in miniature what men
climb the Alps to witness. The crossing of
this wild PLAN, however, is attended with
no danger other than that of a tumble or
a sprain, and these are not frequent.
The architect OF this stupendous structure
Is the south wind A steady blow from
this quarter causes the Ice In Lake Ellie,
twenty-five miles away, to break up into
gigantic fragments, which float down the
current Of the Niagara until they shoot The
rapids and plunge over the ca,aract-a