Niagara Falls, Ont, City, pop 78 815 (2001c), 76 917 (1996c), 75 399 (1991c), area 209.99 km2, inc 1904, possesses a fame and name that are based on the resplendent, world-famous NIAGARA FALLS on the NIAGARA RIVER. Growth has combined tourism and gambling with railhead developments at this Canadian-US border crossing, and in the past with manufacturing industry (including electrochemicals and abrasives) based on cheap and readily available hydroelectric power.
Development of a Tourist HavenThe earliest hotel was built in 1822 on the Portage Road overlooking the falls, and by the 1850s several small communities had developed around this scenic attraction and close to the historic site of LUNDY'S LANE, where a battle was fought towards the end of the WAR OF 1812.
The first bridge was built across the Niagara Gorge in 1848, and in 1853 the GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY arrived, establishing a railhead where the Niagara Suspension Bridge crossed the Niagara River. The Niagara Cantilever Bridge opened immediately to the south in 1883 for the Canada Southern-Michigan Central Railways, and in 1897 the Niagara Railway Arch Bridge was built under and into the suspension bridge to replace its predecessor. These bridges, as great feats of engineering, along with the scenic attractions of the river at the falls and the beginning of rail passenger excursions in 1878, brought thousands of tourist visitors to Niagara Falls.
The community of Drummondville was settled in 1800 near the future Lundy's Lane battlefield. Clifton was established in 1832 near the falls, and a third community, Elgin, grew up where the first bridge was built over the gorge in 1848. In 1856 the villages of Clifton and Elgin were incorporated as the town of Clifton, which became the town of Niagara Falls in 1881. Meanwhile in 1881, Drummondville became the village of Niagara Falls. This confusing situation ended in 1904 when the town and village of Niagara Falls were unified through incorporation as the city of Niagara Falls (pop 7000). The Township of Stamford joined the city in 1963, and in 1973 under regional government (Regional Municipality of Niagara) the village of Chippawa and portions of Willoughby and Crowland townships also became part of the larger city.
The falls became known in Europe and the United States through the paintings and writings of its many 19th-century visitors, but full-scale development of tourism ballooned only after the 1920s as automobile traffic steadily displaced the railway for incoming visitors. Drastic changes to urban form resulted: the railway-oriented downtown area declined; the tourist-commercial area of Clifton Hill closer to the falls grew; a line of hotels and motels expanded along the Lundy's Lane-Highway 20 route to become probably the longest of such strips anywhere in the world; scenic towers, high-rise hotels and tourist attractions ringed the falls; the QUEEN ELIZABETH WAY (QEW), with heavy traffic volumes from the urbanized area of southern Ontario and from the United States via the Peace Bridge, skirted the city to the west; Highway 420 fed from the QEW into the falls, where it crossed the Rainbow Bridge to link with the American Interstate highway system; McLeod Road became a subsidiary route to the falls from the QEW through residential areas to serve Marineland. The Niagara Square shopping mall (1977) and 2 casinos (opened in 1996 and 2004) placed further severe pressures on the original downtown locality.