Trainman News

Weep, Rather, For Man

(Guest editorial from CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER)

GENERATIONS of honeymooners have visited Prospect Point, contemplating the beauty and grandeur of Niagara Falls and perhaps dreaming of happiness which they hoped would be as constant and bountiful as the torrent that flows over the brink.

An estimated 185,000 tons of rock fell into the chasm below the falls and Prospect Point isn't there any more. Authorities say this has actually improved the view of the falls from the American side.

This sort of thing has been going on for a long time. Geologists estimate it may have taken the Niagara River as much as 25,000 years to carve its gorge out of the limestone and shale escarpment which lies between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. In recent years the falls have been receding upstream an average of five feet a year, but it will be thousands of more years before the cataract reaches Lake Erie.

In the meantime, more observation points will be formed by the forces of erosion and eventually will topple into the gorge; more honeymooners will stand on these vantage places to enjoy the beauty of the falls, as will their children and their children's children.

For man's days are numbered—but nature's days are infinite.

Weep not for fallen Prospect Point, nor for more rock which will one day fall. Weep, rather, for man who, in a world of so much natural beauty, plants and reaps chaos; who starting out with tender honeymoon dreams, fails so often to attain them.

Nature, following God's commands, moves quietly and serenely through the ages. Man, disregarding these commands, is the real problem.