1921 T. Kennard Thomson Schematic of Proposed Dam, 'Niagara Falls Junior'

A detailed 1921 pair of manuscript schematic maps illustrating Niagara Falls Jr., a proposed dam on the Lower Niagara River, by civil engineer Thomas Kennard Thomson. The dam, which was never built, was an ambitious project advocated by Thomson and local politician Peter A. Porter.

A Closer Look

This is a set of two hand-drawn maps illustrating maps and transverse views of the proposed dam, to be located near Foster (or Fosters) Flats, just downriver from a whirlpool on the Niagara River.

The larger sheet features a profile view of the Niagara River and Niagara Gorge, from the Falls to Brock's Monument, displaying the elevation changes of the river. Two drawings at center demonstrate the changes in elevation at the dam site from the side and head-on (looking upriver). At bottom is an overhead plan, oriented towards the west-northwest, covering an area from the Falls to Lewiston, indicating the proposed location of the dam.

A second, smaller sheet focusing on proposed tunnels under Goat Island is divided roughly in half, with the top portion demonstrating the plan for building intake tunnels underneath Goat Island, which Porter's ancestors had owned before selling it to the Niagara Reservation (the first state park in the U.S.) in 1885. These tunnels could be used to generate power from water that would otherwise be 'wasted' by flowing over the Falls (though it was assumed that the diminished flow would somewhat reduce the majestic power of the Falls). At bottom is the same overhead plan also present on Kennard Thomson's main dam proposal schematic. At various points, the tunnels under Goat Island were proposed as either a supplement to the dam (as here) or as a standalone project. In either case, they were, from a technical perspective, by far the easier of the two projects to accomplish, though they, like the dam, were never completed.

Niagara Falls Jr.

The notion of constructing a hydroelectric dam across the Niagara River was most stridently advocated by two men, Kennard Thomson, who drew this schematic, and Peter A. Porter, a local politician who served in the New York State Assembly and U.S. House, and who had headed the Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel, Power, and Sewer Company earlier in his career. The dam planned out by Thomson and Porter, along with other modifications such as new tunnels under Goat Island, promised to deliver 2,000,000 horsepower, which would significantly increase the power available throughout New York, even accounting for the power generation that would be devoted to the Canadian side of the falls. Through the Thomson-Porter Cataract Co. (seemingly short-lived) and the Lower Niagara River Power and Water Supply Company, in conjunction with other proponents of the project, Thomson and Porter were able to gain approval permits from the state of New York. The plan garnered significant public interest in support, including a front-page feature in the Scientific American on April 2, 1921.

However, significant progress was never made on building the dam, perhaps because Porter died in 1925, while Thomson appears to have been drawn to other projects, including skyscrapers and bridges in New York City (it also seems that the Canadian government never approved the project). In any event, existing sites (such as the Schoellkopf Power Station) were expanded in the following years, an easier means of increasing the power supplied by the Falls than the highly ambitious Thomson-Porter proposal.

Incidentally, after the partial collapse of the Schoellkopf Power Station in 1956, a new structure was built by the New York Power Authority on the same site. It was later named after Robert Moses (1888 - 1981), who headed the agency. Moses traveled in the same social circles as Kennard Thomson and the two New Yorkers shared a penchant for ambitious urban infrastructure.

Publication History and Census

This schematic was drawn on surveyor's linen by Thomas Kennard Thomson in 1921. These are the manuscript revisions of plans first presented in his and Porter's c. 1915 work Niagara Falls Junior and a 2,000,000 Horse Power Development (cataloged among the holdings of the University of Chicago, the University of Buffalo, and Wisconsin Historical Society in the OCLC; the University of Chicago independently catalogs a smaller-format printing of the Goat Island Tunnels sheet). Jointly owned with Boston Rare Maps.