Over many centuries, erosion of the shaley rock behind Bridal Veil Falls created a cavern about 100 feet high, 50 feet wide, and 100 feet deep as water plunged 165 feet and its force wore away the rock. Originally called Aeolus’ Cave after the fabled God of the Winds, and later better known as Cave of the Winds, it drew explorers and tourists to the falls for more than 170 years. In the 1800s, access was by descending the Biddle Stairs, an enclosed 80-foot-high, 132-step spiral stairway built in 1829 with money donated by Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia and attached to the face of Goat Island’s 165-foot cliff, leading visitors to a path just above the base of the gorge. In 1925, the Cave of the Winds elevator station opened and replaced the old stairs; today visitors still descend to the base of Goat Island and walk a short distance to view Bridal Veil Falls. The attraction is now a series of wooden pathways and platforms that bring visitors within ten feet of the falls, though the cave itself is no longer accessible because of rock scaling along the gorge wall. From 1868 to the early 1900s, Cave of the Winds was an extremely popular trip, and in February 1896, when an ice jam at the head of the rapids cut off water over the American Falls for four days, guide John Barlow became the first to visit the cave in February by approaching it over the ice from the front.