The Great Gorge Route

The Great Gorge Route operated from 1895 to 1935, offering trolley rides through the Niagara Gorge. It first ran from Niagara Falls to Lewiston, New York, and after the Lewiston-Queenston Suspension Bridge opened in 1899, it linked with Canada’s railway along the gorge rim to form a 20-mile circular “Belt Line” with scenic stops and sweeping views. The route was also dangerous at times, as rock falls, washouts, ice avalanches, flooding, and rising ice floes damaged the tracks and caused injuries and deaths. President William McKinley rode a special trolley through the gorge on September 6, 1901, before returning to Buffalo’s Pan-American Exposition, where he was shot later that day and died a week afterward. Searchlight excursions began in 1905, and special cars with wicker chairs and other conveniences served prominent visitors. Serious accidents occurred in 1915, when a trolley derailed descending the escarpment at Queenston, Ontario, and in 1917, when a washed-out section of track near Whirlpool Bridge caused a trolley to leave the rails and flip into the river. The Niagara Falls Power Company purchased the line in 1924, but when the Canadian line did not renew its lease in 1932, the circular route ended. Soon after 5,000 tons of rock fell onto a large section of track on September 6, 1935, the trolley line went out of service. In 1936, most of the trolleys were intentionally burned, steel parts were salvaged, the rails were removed from the gorge, and hiking trails later occupied the route.

Niagara Falls, New York · United States