The rock layers of sixty-foot Brandywine Falls record millions of years of geologic history as ancient seas left behind sediments that were compressed by added layers. The rocks at the base of the falls were formed three hundred to four hundred million years ago. Brandywine Creek and this bridal veil cascade began about ten thousand years ago after the last Ice Age. The falls have exposed harder yellow-brown Berea sandstone resting atop softer deep-red Bedford shale, and because the sandstone resists erosion more effectively, the shale below is frequently undercut. As these layers wear away, the geology of the Cuyahoga Valley continues to be revealed. Brandywine Creek flows for ten miles from near Twinsburg to the Cuyahoga River, two miles downstream from here.
