A Bridge to Freedom

In the 1800s, Western New York was one of the main ending points of the Underground Railroad, a secret system of people and places that helped guide escaped slaves from the US South to Canada and to freedom. Harriet Tubman, one of its most famous conductors, often led slaves to freedom by crossing the Niagara River into Canada and likely crossed the Suspension Bridge that once stood where the Whirlpool Bridge is today. Designed by John A. Roebling and built in 1855, the Suspension Bridge carried a railroad above and a walkway underneath. In 1897, a steel-arch bridge was built around the existing bridge, and the Suspension Bridge was then dismantled, leaving the current Whirlpool Bridge. Born into slavery around 1820 on a plantation in Maryland, Tubman escaped in 1849 and settled in Philadelphia, PA. A year later, she began guiding other escaped slaves to safety. After slavery was abolished in the United States, she made her home in Auburn, NY, where she died in 1913.

Niagara Falls, New York · United States