Tourists gush over view

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NIAGARA FALLS -- For nearly two centuries, the mere mention of its name has spawned images of romance: shy brides, proud grooms, couples arm-in-arm gazing wistfully at the thundering torrent and each other.
Granted, today's couples are more likely to honeymoon in the Caribbean or Hawaii than at the twin cascades spanning the U.S.-Canada border. But in our "imaginary geography," as Niagara history author Karen Dubinsky puts it, Niagara Falls is still "The Honeymoon Capital of the World."
On a recent weekend, brides in flowing gossamer gowns waited their turns with grooms in starched collars for the most idyllic photo-taking spots -- a cloisterlike breezeway, an arched pavilion and flower-filled gardens in Victoria Park, on the falls' Canadian side.
For Michelle Cain Clair, 25, and Mickey Clair of Hamilton, Ontario, Niagara was a natural choice; it's her hometown. And, she said, "so much prettier" than where they live now.
"I always wanted to come here for my wedding," said Emily Weiler Delaurier, 21, of nearby Windsor, Ontario, who had married Don, 33, her fianc & eacute; of 18 months, just a few hours before. "It's so beautiful."
Patricia Moore Beeley, 19, and groom Jared Beeley, 22, of Shelburne, Ontario, had "eloped" with 20 family members and friends in tow. "We wanted to get away from everything. It's so beautiful here."
Descriptions fall short
Beautiful -- the refrain is as constant as the water itself, gushing at a rate of more than 1.5 million gallons per second over a 170-foot drop into a gorge carved by thousands of years of erosion.
Beautiful is hardly an adequate description. Yet all the others -- mesmerizing, surreal, eternal, poetic, unthinkable, daunting, luminous, ethereal, breathtaking -- are equally impoverished, unable to match the sheer dramatic glory of this spigot of the gods.
Visitors can view them from the left (the American side), right (the Canadian, which offers the best views), above (from towering hotel rooms) and below (on the famed Maid of Mist cruisers and from platforms on both sides of the border). But the falls are arguably most impressive at Table Rock, at the Canadian brink, where the Coke-bottle-colored water dashes, desolate and relentless, over the rocky edge.
The wind kicks spray into your hair; if the sun is out, a rainbow invariably cavorts atop the water. Don't be surprised if the crowd simply fades from consciousness and you find yourself spellbound, lost in the mind-numbing sound and bottomless green fury.
1830s resort
It was this transfixing quality that first transformed the falls into the resort of choice for wealthy travelers of the 1830s and '40s, a must-do on the grand tour of North America.
"I felt how near to my creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one -- instant and lasting -- of the tremendous spectacle, was peace," wrote author Charles Dickens after his 1841 visit.
Not that everyone agreed.
"Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life," wrote Oscar Wilde after an 1882 visit, notes Dubinsky in her book, "The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls."
Disappointment or not, the falls became THE place for generations of 20th-century couples to take their first plunge into wedded life. They came on trains and in cars, celebrated in plays and movies, including the 1953 film "Niagara," starring Marilyn Monroe. And as society loosened up, Niagara Falls' powerful flow was openly associated with sexual overtones.
"What you need," Cary Grant told Grace Kelly in the 1955 film "To Catch a Thief," "is 10 minutes with a good man at Niagara Falls."
Attractions galore
The entrepreneurial spirit that danced around them was equally potent.
As early as 1827, a local hotel owner lured visitors by sending a schooner filled with live animals over the falls. By 1850, Cave Of The Winds, still a popular attraction on the U.S. side, and Maid of the Mist, which operates ongoing cruises to the base of the falls, were in business.
Live-wire acts, daredevil feats (the first person over in a barrel, Annie Taylor, took her spin in 1901) and genuine tragedies -- such as the 1912 Ice Bridge accident when three died after the snowy mound at the falls' base suddenly broke apart -- set the stage for the circus atmosphere that marks this as an original roadside attraction.
To stem the exploitation, both sides of the falls were taken over by regional governments as parks in the 1880s. Still, when you see hotels and office towers hovering above the cascades, you can't help but wish they'd been buried in a wide swath of pristine national parklands.
The capital of kitsch
Today, when people talk about the beauty of the falls, they are talking about the falls themselves, not necessarily what's around them. Put Orlando's I-Drive on steroids, and you're getting close to the kitsch scale here.
On the Canadian side, arcades, casinos, 4-D and simulator rides, haunted houses and a giant Frankenstein chowing down at Burger King creep up the three-block incline from the water known as Clifton Hill. A giant guitar marking the entrance to the Hard Rock Cafe shadows the graceful garden of Oakes Park Theatre.
On a busy Saturday night, the street is nearly blocked by families -- as big a market these days as love-struck newlyweds. Only the greenway along the falls and river themselves are protected as parkland. It's not until you get a few miles up the road, to the outskirts of Niagara-on-the-Lake, that a sense of rural charm sets in.
On the U.S. side, park jurisdiction pushes businesses back farther from the edge. But while the experience of the falls is more serene here, the town feels a bit threadbare, as if it's seen better days.
Flocking to the area
Not that visitors seem to care. This year, about 8.4 million are expected to visit the falls' U.S. overlooks, while some 11 million to 14 million will stop off at the Canadian side. About 2,000 will get marriage licenses in the area -- and on the Canadian side, for the first time, that will include same-sex couples.
And despite the crowds and the hullabaloo, the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood, the towering buildings hovering above the falls, they'll find a natural phenomenon whose sheer and utter beauty is matched only in the remote regions of South America, at Iguazu Falls, and in Africa, at Victoria Falls.
"It's absolutely beautiful" -- that word again -- "and breathtaking," said Laverne and Larry Gore of Cleveland, who stopped for a few hours on their way home from taking their son to college.
"The falls are cool," said Louis Suvoy, 13, of Garden City, Mich., on a family trip to New England. "You can see a rainbow almost any time of the day."
"I've been here two dozen times," said Hazen Meyers, 20, a student from nearby Hamilton, Ontario, who brought girlfriend Niki Garzia to spend the day. "We were here two months ago, and we'll be back," he said.
With good reason. The couple isn't engaged, he says. "Not yet."