Niagara River
Satellite image of the Niagara River. Flowing from Lake Erie in the south (bottom of image) to Lake Ontario in the north, the river passes around Grand Island before going over Niagara Falls, after which it narrows in the Niagara Gorge. Two hydropower reservoirs are visible just before the river widens after exiting the gorge. The Welland Canal is visible on the far left side of this image. (Source: NASA Visible Earth)
Origin	Lake Erie
Mouth	Lake Ontario
Basin countries	United States & Canada
Length	58 kilometres (36 mi)[1]
Avg. discharge	5,796 m³/s (204,800 cfs)[2]
Basin area	684,000 square kilometres (264,000 sq mi)[1]

The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada (on the west) and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, "Niagara" is derived from the name given to a branch of the locally residing native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the "Niagagarega" people on several late 17th century French maps of the area.^[3] According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called "Ongniaahra", meaning "point of land cut in two".^[4]

The river, which is occasionally described as a strait,^[5] is about 56 kilometres (35 mi) long and includes Niagara Falls in its course. The falls have moved approximately 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) upstream from the Niagara Escarpment in the last 12,000 years, resulting in a gorge below the falls. Today, the diversion of the river for electrical generation has significantly reduced the rate of erosion.

Power plants on the river include the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Stations on the Canadian side, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant (built in 1961) on the American side. Together, they generate 4.4 gigawatts of electricity. The International Control Works, built in 1954, regulates the river flow. Ships on the Great Lakes use the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, on the Canadian side of the river, to bypass Niagara Falls.

The total drop in elevation along the river is 99 metres (325 ft). The Niagara Gorge extends downstream from the Falls and includes the Niagara Whirlpool and another section of rapids.

The Niagara River also features two large islands and numerous smaller islands. Grand Island and Navy Island, the two largest islands, are on the American and Canadian sides of the river, respectively. Goat Island and the tiny Luna Island split Niagara Falls into its three sections, the Horseshoe, Bridal Veil, and American Falls. Squaw Island lies further upstream, alongside the city of Buffalo.

The Niagara River and its tributaries, Tonawanda Creek and the Welland River, formed part of the last section of the Erie Canal and Welland Canal. After leaving Lockport, New York, the Erie Canal proceeds southwest until it enters Tonawanda Creek. After entering the Niagara River, watercraft then proceed southward to the final lock, where a short section of the canal allows boats to avoid the turbulent shoal water at the river intake and enter Lake Erie.

The Welland Canals used the Welland River as a connection to the Niagara River south of the falls, allowing water traffic to safely re-enter the Niagara River and proceed to Lake Erie.

The American Falls with Goat Island to its right.

History[link]

Queenston, Ontario, then known as Queenstown, Upper Canada, in a c. 1805 watercolour by army surgeon Edward Walsh. The Niagara River is clearly visible.

The Niagara River and Falls have been known outside of North America since the late 17th century, when Father Louis Hennepin, a French explorer, first witnessed them. He wrote about his travels in A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America (1698).^[6]

The Niagara River was the site of the earliest recorded railway in America. It was an inclined wooden tramway built by John Montresor (1736–1799), a British military engineer, in 1764. Called "The Cradles" and "The Old Lewiston Incline," it featured loaded carts pulled up wooden rails by rope. It facilitated the movement of goods over the Niagara Escarpment in present-day Lewiston, New York.^[7]

Several battles occurred along the Niagara River, which was historically defended by Fort George (Canadian side) and Fort Niagara (American side) at the mouth of the river and Fort Erie (Canadian side) at the head of the river. These forts were important during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. The Battle of Queenston Heights took place near the river in the War of 1812.

The river was an important route to liberation before the American Civil War, when many African-Americans escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad crossed it to find freedom in Canada. The Freedom Crossing Monument stands on the bank of the river in Lewiston, to commemorate the courage of the escaping slaves and the local volunteers who assisted them in secretly crossing the river.

In the 1880s, the Niagara River became the first waterway in North America to be harnessed for large-scale generation of hydroelectricity.^[8]

On the Canadian side of the river the provincial agency Niagara Parks Commission maintains all of the shoreline property, except the sites of Fort George and Fort Erie (both National Historic Sites are maintained federally by Parks Canada), as a public greenspace and environmental heritage.

On the US side New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation maintains the state parks that line Falls and Niagara River.

Today, the river is the namesake of Niagara Herald Extraordinary at the Canadian Heraldic Authority.

Cities and settlements[link]

Population centers along the Niagara River include:

Name	Country
Buffalo	United States
Chippawa	Canada
Fort Erie	Canada
Lewiston	United States
Grand Island	United States
Niagara Falls	United States
Niagara Falls	Canada
Niagara-on-the-Lake	Canada
North Tonawanda	United States
Porter	United States
Queenston	Canada
Tonawanda (City)	United States
Tonawanda (Town)	United States
Wheatfield	United States
Youngstown	United States

Pollution[link]

The Niagara River is listed as a Great Lakes Areas of Concern in The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada.

Crossings[link]

The Niagara River has a long history of both road and rail bridges spanning the river, both upstream and downstream of the Falls. This history includes numerous bridges that have fallen victim to the harsh conditions of the Niagara Gorge, such as landslides and icepacks.

Parks[link]

Niagara Glen features many rapids downstream of Niagara Falls

The following parks are located along the Niagara River:

Name	Country
Beaver Island State Park	United States
Bowen Road Park	Canada
Broderick Park	United States
Browns Point Park	Canada
Buckhorn State Park	United States
Deveaux Woods State Park	United States
Dufferin Island Natural Area	Canada
Earl W. Brydes ArtPark	United States
Falkner Park	United States
Fisherman's Park	United States
Floral Clock Park	Canada
Fort Niagara State Park	United States
Gratwick Riverside Park	United States
Griffon Park	United States
Jayne Park	United States
Joseph Davis State Park	United States
King's Bridge Park	Canada
MacFarland Park	Canada
Niagara Falls State Park	United States
Niagara Glen Nature Reserve	Canada
Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens	Canada
Nike Base Park	United States
Queen's Parada Park & Memorial Park	Canada
Queenston Heights Park	Canada
Riverside Park	United States
Strawberry Island State Park	United States
Sugar Bowl Park	Canada
Veterans Memorial Park	United States
Victoria Park	Canada
Whirlpool State Park	United States

A Niagara River Greenway Plan is in progress in the United States.

Waterways & Falls[link]

The Spanish Aero Car crossing the Niagara Whirlpool

Feature	Country	Notes
American Falls	United States	Located entirely on the US side
Bridal Veil Falls	United States	smallest of the three falls and entirely within the US
Chippawa Channel	Shared	Niagara River to west of Grand Island
Horseshoe Falls	Canada	Border lies within the falls
Goat Island Channel	United States	between Goat Island and Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Gorge	Shared	runs from Niagara-on-the-Lake ON/Lewiston NY to the Falls
Devil's Hole Rapids	Shared	located further downstream across from Devil's Hole State Park in the US and next to the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens in Canada
Whirlpool Hole Rapids	Shared	located upstream from Whirlpool along the Niagara Gorge
Niagara Whirlpool	Canada	located next to Whirlpools Golf Course and across from Whirlpool State Park
Tonawanda Channel	United States	Niagara River to east of Grand Island
Welland River	Canada	Flows from Hamilton, Ontario to the Niagara River near Niagara Falls, Ontario

Islands[link]

Several islands are located on the upper river upriver from the falls:

Name	Location	Country	Status	Notes
Buckhorn Island	Grand Island	United States	park	located on the north end of Grand Island
Cayuga Island	Niagara Falls	United States	residential	at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, a residential neighborhood of the city
Cedar Island		Canada	filled in	filled in by the creation of the William Birch Rankine Power Station by Canadian Niagara Power Company in 1905
Deer Island		United States
Dufferin Islands		Canada		man made islands
Goat Island		United States		park located at the brink of the American Falls was named by John Stedman in the 1770s; briefly renamed to Iris Island by General Augustus Porter, a United States Commissioner (after the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow)
Grand Island		United States	developed	the largest island on the river; some parks, but mostly residential and industrial; originally called Ga-We-Not (Great Island) by the Seneca Indians
Grass Island		United States	filled in	filled in during the 1960s to create the Robert Moses Parkway at Point Day
Green Island		United States	renamed	originally called Bath Island, it was renamed in the early 1900s for Niagara Reservation Commissioner Andrew H. Green
Gull Island		Canada
Hogg Island		Canada	filled in	filled in by the creation of the Chippawa Queenston Power Canal in 1917 and finally by the Sir Adam Beck Dam # 2 in 1950 by the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario
Little Brother Island		United States
Luna Island	Niagara Falls	United States		park located next to Goat Island; originally called Prospect Island
Moss Islands		United States		renamed Three Sisters Islands
Motor Island		United States	park	a small park
Navy Island		Canada	park	designated as a national historic park
Prospect Island		United States	renamed	renamed Luna Island
Robinson Island		United States		named for daredevil Joel Robinson in 1860
Ship Island & Brig Island		United States
Squaw Island	Buffalo	United States	developed	home to Broderick Park and a waste-water treatment facility
Strawberry Island		United States	park	a small park
Three Sisters Islands	Niagara Falls	United States	park	park located next to Goat Island was originally called Moss Islands and later renamed for the three daughters of War of 1812 United States Army General Parkhurst Whitney (Asenath, Angeline and Celinda Eliza) in 1843
Tonawanda Island		United States	developed	occupied by marina and some industries
Tower Island		United States	man-made	man-made island created in 1942 by the US Army Corps of Engineers
Willow Island		United States	man-made / filled in	man-made island created in 1759 by Daniel Joncairs and filled in during the 1960s to create the Robert Moses Parkway

Military Posts along the Niagara River[link]

United States Coast Guard Fort Niagara Station was once a United States Army post. There are no Canadian Coast Guard posts along the river. Fort Mississauga, Fort George and Fort Erie are former British and Canadian military forts (last used 1953, 1965 and 1923 respectively) and are now now parks.

Roads[link]

On the Canadian side the Niagara Parkway travels along the River from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.

Robert Moses State Parkway on the state side only travels along the River from the Falls to Lake Ontario. The remaining river sections (with some interruptions) are covered by the LaSalle Expressway, New York State Route 384 and Interstate 190 (New York).

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• List of international border rivers
• List of New York rivers
• List of Ontario rivers
• Whirlpool Aero Car

References[link]

• Tiplin, Albert H.; Seibel, George A. and Seibel, Olive M. (1988) Our romantic Niagara: a geological history of the river and the falls Niagara Falls Heritage Foundation, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, ISBN 0-9690457-2-7

Further reading[link]

• Hulbert, A. B. (1908). The Niagara River. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Niagara River

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Niagara.

• Niagara Photos
• Niagara River and its Around Views
• Views of the Niagara River Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)
• Digital Images of the Islands of the Niagara River Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)
• Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper
• Niagara Falls The Islands A History of the Niagara River Islands
• Niagara River from The Canadian Encyclopedia

Coordinates: 43°04′41″N 79°04′37″W / 43.078°N 79.077°W / 43.078; -79.077

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Kay Ryan
Born	(1945-09-21) September 21, 1945 (age 66) San Jose, California, USA
Occupation	Poet, Educator
Nationality	American
Period	1970s-present
Genres	Poetry
Notable work(s)	The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010)
Notable award(s)	Guggenheim Fellowship (2004) Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2004) United States Poet Laureate (2008-2010) Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2011) MacArthur Fellowship (2011)
Partner(s)	Carol Adair (1978-2009†)
Influences Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost

Kay Ryan (born September 21, 1945) is an American poet and educator. She has published seven volumes of poetry and an anthology of selected and new poems. Ryan was the sixteenth United States Poet Laureate,^[1] from 2008 to 2010. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.^[2]

Biography[link]

Ryan was born in San Jose, California, and was raised in several areas of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.^[3] After attending Antelope Valley College, she received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from University of California, Los Angeles.^[4] Since 1971, she has lived in Marin County, California, and has taught English part-time at the College of Marin in Kentfield.^[5] Carol Adair, who was also an instructor at the College of Marin, was Ryan's partner from 1978 until Adair's death in 2009.^[6][7]

Her first collection, Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, was privately published in 1983 with the help of friends.^[8] While she found a commercial publisher for her second collection, Strangely Marked Metal (1985), her work went nearly unrecognized until the mid 1990s, when some of her poems were anthologized and the first reviews in national journals were published.^[9] She became widely recognized following her receipt of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2004, and published her sixth collection of poetry, The Niagara River, in 2005.

In July 2008, the U.S. Library of Congress announced that Ryan would be the sixteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress for a one-year term commencing in Autumn 2008. She succeeded Charles Simic.^[1] In April 2009, the Library announced that Ryan would serve a second one-year term extending through May 2010.^[10] She was succeeded by W.S. Merwin in June 2010.^[11]

She lives in Fairfax, in Marin County, CA.

Poetry[link]

The Poetry Foundation's website has characterized Ryan's poems as follows: "Like Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore before her, Ryan delights in quirks of logic and language and teases poetry out of the most unlikely places. She regards the 'rehabilitation of clichés,' for instance, as part of the poet’s mission. Characterized by subtle, surprising rhymes and nimble rhythms, her compact poems are charged with sly wit and off-beat wisdom." J. D. McClatchy included Ryan in his 2003 anthology of contemporary American poetry.^[12] He wrote in his introduction, "Her poems are compact, exhilarating, strange affairs, like Satie miniatures or Cornell boxes. ... There are poets who start with lived life, still damp with sorrow or uncertainty, and lead it towards ideas about life. And there are poets who begin with ideas and draw life in towards their speculations. Marianne Moore and May Swenson were this latter sort of artist; so is Kay Ryan."^[12]

Ryan's poems are often quite short. In one of the first essays on Ryan, Dana Gioia wrote about this aspect of her poetry. "Ryan reminds us of the suggestive power of poetry–how it elicits and rewards the reader’s intellect, imagination, and emotions. I like to think that Ryan’s magnificently compressed poetry – along with the emergence of other new masters of the short poem like Timothy Murphy and H.L. Hix and the veteran maestri like Ted Kooser and Dick Davis – signals a return to concision and intensity."^[9]

Many reviewers have noted an affinity between Ryan's poetry and Marianne Moore's.^[13]

In addition to the oft-remarked affinity with Moore, affinities with poets May Swenson, Stevie Smith, Emily Dickinson, Wendy Cope, and Amy Clampitt have been noted by some critics. Thus Katha Pollitt wrote that Ryan's fourth collection, Elephant Rocks (1997), is "Stevie Smith rewritten by William Blake" but that Say Uncle (2000) "is like a poetical offspring of George Herbert and the British comic poet Wendy Cope."^[14] Another reviewer of Say Uncle (2000) wrote of Ryan, "Her casual manner and nods to the wisdom tradition might endear her to fans of A. R. Ammons or link her distantly to Emily Dickinson. But her tight structures, odd rhymes and ethical judgments place her more firmly in the tradition of Marianne Moore and, latterly, Amy Clampitt."^[15]

Ryan's wit, quirkiness, and slyness are often noted by reviewers of her poetry, but Jack Foley emphasizes her essential seriousness. In his review of Say Uncle he writes, "There is, in short, far more darkness than 'light' in this brilliant, limited volume. Kay Ryan is a serious poet writing serious poems, and she resides on a serious planet (a word she rhymes with 'had it'). Ryan can certainly be funny, but it is rarely without a sting."^[16] Some of these disjoint qualities in her work are illustrated by her poem "Outsider Art", which Harold Bloom selected for the anthology The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988-1997.

Ryan is also known for her extensive use of internal rhyme. She refers to her specific methods of using internal rhyme as "recombinant rhyme." She claims that she had a hard time "tak[ing] end-rhyme seriously," and uses recombinant rhyme to bring structure and form to her work. As for other types of form, Ryan claims that she cannot use them, stating that it is "like wearing the wrong clothes."^[17]

Honors and awards[link]

Ryan's awards include a 1995 award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation,^[1] the 2000 Union League Poetry Prize,^[18] the 2001 Maurice English Poetry Award, a fellowship in 2001 from the National Endowment for the Arts,^[19] a 2004 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her poems have been included in three Pushcart Prize anthologies,^[20][21][22] and have been selected four times for The Best American Poetry;^[23][24][25] "Outsider Art" was selected by Harold Bloom for The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988-1997. Since 2006, Ryan has served as one of fourteen Chancellors of The Academy of American Poets.^[26] On January 22, 2011, Ryan was listed as a finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award; on April 18, 2011, Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, for her collection The Best of It: New and Selected Poems.^{[27][28][29][30]}

On September 20th, 2011, Ryan was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Fellows Program 'genius grant.' ^[31]

Poetry collections[link]

• 1983: Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, 64 pages, Fairfax, California: Taylor Street Press, ISBN 0911407006
• 1985: Strangely Marked Metal, 50 pages, Providence, Rhode Island: Copper Beech Press, ISBN 0914278460
• 1994: Flamingo Watching, 63 pages, Providence, Rhode Island: Copper Beech Press, ISBN 0914278649
• 1996: Elephant Rocks, 84 pages, New York: Grove Press, ISBN 0802115861
• 2000: Say Uncle, New York: Grove Press, 80 pages, ISBN 0802137172
• 2005: The Niagara River, 72 pages, New York: Grove Press, ISBN 0802142222
• 2008: Jam Jar Lifeboat & Other Novelties Exposed, illustrated by Carl Dern. 40 pages, Red Berry Editions, ISBN 9780981578118
• 2010: The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, Grove Press, ISBN 978-0802119148

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Kay Ryan: Online Resources". The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ryan/. Retrieved 2008-07-21. 
• Profile and poems of Kay Ryan at the Poetry Foundation.
• Sarah Fay (Winter 2008). "Kay Ryan, The Art of Poetry No. 94". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5889/the-art-of-poetry-no-94-kay-ryan. 
• Audio: Kay Ryan reading at the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar (29:52)
• Review of The Best of It by Dwight Garner in The New York Times.
• Essay by Dana Gioia "Discovering Kay Ryan". First published in The Dark Horse journal (No. 7, Winter 1998-99).