The Niagara Falls Illumination

Seeing Niagara Falls during the day, with all its thunderous power and rushing water is an amazing sight at any time of the year, but seeing the Falls illumination lit up with a rainbow of colors at night is something that will not soon be forgotten.

Going back almost 150 years, people have tried to find ways to bring the beauty and glory off the falls alive at night. Starting with the use of Bengal Lights (a version of flare commonly used for signaling at the time) in 1860 to display Niagara Falls to impress the visiting Prince of Wales.

These lights, more than 200 in all, were placed along the river shoreline and behind the falls themselves and although they worked the same method was never used again to illuminate the Falls.

For many years after this there were several lighting versions and placements used to try to get the most out of lighting up the Falls but nothing was used consistently.

Even though electric light had now been used to display the Falls at night there were still several different companies and lighting alternatives used over the next few decades including one large 4,000 candle powered spot light aimed at the American Falls by the co-owner of the Maid of the Mist Boat Company.

Eventually, after a group of American and Canadian businessmen formed a group called the Niagara Falls Illumination Board, a new set of lights were mounted on top of the Ontario Power Company’s water surge tank located near the Horseshoe Falls. This location made it possible to shine light on both the American and Canadian Falls from one location.

The first lights had special gelatine films of various colors that had to be manually placed in front of the lights in order to change the color of light hitting the falls.

After even more upgrades, the lights were finally changed in the late 1990’s to the ones in use today.

There are a total of 21 lights used in the new system and offer up to 70 percent more illumination than the older lights, a full 8 billion candle power in total and use only 4,000 watts. The colors that are used today to light up the Falls are red, white, blue, amber, and green.

During periods of both world wars the light were left dark and in January of 1938 when a large ice Jam in the river caused a large overflow of water and ice into the Ontario Power Company’s generators jamming them and therefore stopping any hydro from being generated. The famous ice jam was short lived and the Falls were illuminated again.

The entire lighting system is overseen by only two employees who act more like artists as they change the colors coming from the various lights creating a unique light show against the Falls every night.

When visiting Niagara Falls make sure to check them out at night when the lights are on to see just how beautiful the are.

For a real treat, visit the falls just before 9 o'clock pm and you will also get to catch the Fireworks show put on by the Niagara Parks Department every week as well.

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