Portion of the Great Lakes area as seen from Skylab
Summary
SL4-139-3989 (February 1974) --- An oblique view of a portion of the Great Lakes area as seen from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. This picture was taken with a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad camera. Lake Erie is in the foreground; and Lake Ontario is in the background. The Niagara Falls area is in the center of the photograph. Portions of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada are visible, but under nearly complete snow cover. Major structural features, drainage patterns, road systems and the cities of Buffalo and Toronto are easily distinguished and actually enhanced by the snow. At the time this picture was taken, these two Great Lakes had no observable ice, although cloud formations partially mask the southern shores of the two bodies of water. James Barnes, a snow-pattern expert, will analyze Skylab photographs like this one to gain further knowledge of snow cover over land masses. Photo credit: NASA
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the US state of New York and the Canadian province of Ontario. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, also known as Canadian Falls, which straddles the international border between Canada and the United States. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie entirely within the United States. Bridal Veil Falls are separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York as well. Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America that has a vertical drop of more than 50 meters (160 ft). Niagara Falls is famed both for its beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. In 1881, the Niagara River's first hydroelectric generating station was built. The water fell 86 feet (26 m) and generated direct current electricity, which ran the machinery of local mills and lit up some of the village streets. In 1893, Westinghouse Electric designed a system to generate alternating current. In 1896, giant underground conduits leading to turbines generating upwards of 100,000 horsepower (75 MW), we installed.
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