Niagara River - Niagara Bond And Free ( Originally Published
1908 ) No one acquainted with the Niagara of today can imagine
what were the conditions existing here before the days of the
New York State Reservation and Queen Victoria Park. That old
Niagara of private ownership, with a new fee for every point of
vantage, was a barbarous incongruity only matched by the wonder
and beauty of the spectacle itself. The admission to Goat Island
was fifty cents, and to the Cave of the Winds, one dollar. To
gain Prospect Park, the " Art Gallery," the inclined railway, or
the ferry, the charge was twenty-five cents. It cost one dollar
to go to the " Shadow of the Rock," or go behind the Horseshoe
Fall. The admission to the Burning Spring was fifty cents,
likewise to Lundy's Lane battle-ground, the Whirlpool Rapids,
the Whirlpool. It cost twenty-five cents to go upon either of
the suspension bridges. In addition to this a swarm of pedlars
were hawking their wares at your elbows, and tents were pitched
at every vantage poi