On March 11, 2009, a Canadian in his mid-thirties went over the guardrail and waded into the freezing cold Niagara River. He was swept over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The force of the current tore his clothes off. He was spotted naked below Niagara Falls, in the dangerous churning river water.

This elevated ridge on the right is the Niagara Escarpment. Beginning at the Niagara River Gorge, it extends north, through Ontario, 440 miles, 725 kilometers to Georgian Bay, Tobermary, and Manitoulin Island, the world’s largest freshwater island.

Since 1964, an ice boom has been installed at the mouth of the river at Lake Erie, stretching from Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie, Ontario to prevent the big sheets of ice from floating down the river, going over Niagara Falls, and causing damage. It is 1.7 miles, 2.7 kilometers long.

Because of the volume of water flowing over Niagara Falls, it is near impossible for them to completely freeze over. That being said, they can appear to be frozen over.

It used to be a tourist attraction to go out on the river ice in the winter. People would climb the ice bridge, others would set up shacks and sell souvenirs, food and liquor right on the ice. It was a cold Sunday afternoon, February 4, 1912, when suddenly, without warning, the ice started cracking and breaking up.