This Extraordinary Bridge,
Over Which A Train Of Cars Weighing 440 Tons Has Recently Passed, Has A
Span Of 800 Feet, And A Double Roadway, The Upper One Being Used By The
Railway.
The floor of the bridge is 230 feet above the river, and the
depth of the river immediately under it is 250 feet!
The view from it is
magnificent; to the left the furious river, confined in a narrow space,
rushes in rapids to the Whirlpool; and to the right the Horse-shoe Fall
pours its torrent of waters into the dark and ever invisible abyss. When
we reached the American side we had to declare to a custom-house officer
that we were no smugglers; and then by an awful road, partly covered
with stumps, and partly full of holes, over the one, and through the
other, our half-tipsy driver jolted us, till we wished ourselves a
thousand miles from Niagara Falls. "There now, faith, and wasn't I nearly
done for myself?" he exclaimed, as a jolt threw him from his seat, nearly
over the dash-board.
We passed through the town bearing the names of Niagara Falls and
Manchester, an agglomeration of tea-gardens, curiosity-shops, and monster
hotels, with domes of shining tin. We drove down a steep hill, and crossed
a very insecure-looking wooden bridge to a small wooded island, where a
man with a strong nasal twang demanded a toll of twenty-five cents, and
anon we crossed a long bridge over the lesser rapids.
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