frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

The Hidden Engineering of Niagara Falls

https://practical.engineering/blog/2025/10/21/the-hidden-engineering-of-niagara-falls
194•chmaynard•3mo ago

Comments

glitcher•3mo ago
Grady Hillhouse does such an amazing job of presenting engineering topics to the layperson very thoughtfully. I'm not an engineer, but I always get completely drawn into their videos even when it seems like something I would have no interest in.

I didn't know anything about the engineering surrounding the Niagara Falls region, but this latest video leaves me curious about how the two countries managed to work together in those early years, with all of the disputes and collaborations involved.

curtistyr•3mo ago
This reminds me of how international cooperation can lead to incredible feats—like the International Joint Commission managing the Great Lakes. I've been thinking about how such collaborations laid the groundwork for modern projects. It's fascinating to consider how they navigated those challenges without today's tech. How do you think these early efforts influenced later international endeavors?
ourmandave•3mo ago
I binged watched his whole series on the waste water lift station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdcXkmvXXwU

When people complain, "every time I see road workers they're just standing around." Well watch this series and see the number of different crews and steps it takes to do major construction.

space_ghost•3mo ago
"Every time I see a programmer they're just staring at their monitors." :D
hommelix•3mo ago
There are quite a few documents about the building of the Niagara power plant at oldwoodward gallery: http://www.oldwoodward.com/gallery/index.php?/search/psk-202...

If the search link doesn't work, search for Niagara in the photo gallery.

e-master•3mo ago
I highly recommend visiting the niagara parks power station museum on the Canadian side - they have a very interesting exhibition of the old power plant. You can even go down to the old tunnel and walk through it to see how the water was diverted back into the river, fascinating stuff.

The Welland canal is also very interesting. There's something really cool about seeing a large ship moving _on_ a bridge while driving under that same bridge with a car. Also, the city of Welland has some nice bike trails iirc.

PradeetPatel•3mo ago
Is that the one not too far from the statue of Tesla donated by the Serbian government? I vaguely remember visiting it a good few years ago...
e-master•3mo ago
Yes, I think so, it's right next to the parking lot. I visited it about 3 years ago, but back then the tunnel was not accessible yet, it is now.

Also, not sure if this is true, but our tour guide told us that Tesla himself actually never set foot on the Canadian side of the falls.

rob74•3mo ago
While it's nice to have a transcript of a YouTube video, if the text says "this is a map of the isthmus", it would be a good idea to actually put the map on the page.
0xd3af•3mo ago
So happy to see Practical Engineering on HN! One of my all time favourite channels. I implore anyone to go back through the back catalogue of seemingly mundane subject matter (sewers, for instance), you'll be surprised. Great channel, very well done.
burntoutgray•3mo ago
It's always inspiring to watch videos of tangible engineering with atoms.
boriskourt•3mo ago
Grady is also on Nebula, its a very nice place to watch these if you like the video format. There are a few engineering creators on there that make really high quality work.
comrade1234•3mo ago
I was at Niagara Falls a few years ago and it just seemed kind of weak. I mean, yes it was impressive but thinking about the rivers I know and have seen that empty just into Lake Superior, and multiplying that by all of the other rivers that empty into the great lakes, it just didn't seem like it was enough water.

And so I looked it up and it was correct. Almost all of the water that would go over the falls is redirected to power generation. A secondary good effect is that this reduces erosion of the falls - before this they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.

pif•3mo ago
> eventually would reach Lake Ontario

You mean Lake Erie, don't you?

junker37•3mo ago
I'm pretty sure they mean Lake Ontario. It's been a while since I've been there. But I believe the water falls from Lake Ontario into Lake Eerie.
pif•3mo ago
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls :

The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, forming part of the border between Ontario, Canada, to the west, and New York, United States, to the east. [...]

The river [...] is approximately 58 kilometres (36 mi) long and includes the Niagara Falls.

junker37•3mo ago
Thx! I had always thought it was the other way around.
noahjk•3mo ago
> they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.

It's not often we witness a large-scale geographic shift - while obviously we needed to preserve the lake in this scenario, imagine watching this unfold as a great lake disappears. That would be a sight to see! (Granted, assuming 36 miles between the falls and the lake, that would happen ~60,000 years from now)

psunavy03•3mo ago
> this they were eroding and moving up river at least three feet per year and eventually would reach Lake Ontario which would empty the lake.

It wouldn't empty the lake. It would merely erode away the escarpment so that water flowed smoothly from one lake to the other.

JCM9•3mo ago
Really enjoy this YouTube channel. Things are being a bit phoned in on these “articles” though as it’s just a transcript of the video and references images and content that aren’t in the article, which makes it difficult to read.
Insanity•3mo ago
This was a fun watch! I love in Ontario and go to the falls a few times per year. I just love looking at them and ponder about nature, and the scale of time.

It’s one of my favourite places to go, and definitely where I take anyone visiting from abroad.

qrush•3mo ago
I grew up close to Niagara Falls and my dad was a firefighter there for ~30 years who had to practice rappelling down the gorge to save people (which sadly happens too frequently).

His favorite story from the last time they "shut the falls off" was that they found tons of loose change in the rocks around the rapids - people were racing to get it and bringing back buckets of money. (Of course, they also found a few bodies as well...)

gregorymichael•3mo ago
What a great video. From the talk track, to the visuals, to the "flow", to the confident but accessible sprinkling of technical terms. Loved this.

Go Bills.

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
391•klaussilveira•5h ago•85 comments

The Waymo World Model

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/02/the-waymo-world-model-a-new-frontier-for-autonomous-driving-simula...
749•xnx•10h ago•459 comments

Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

https://github.com/pydantic/monty
118•dmpetrov•5h ago•48 comments

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

https://github.com/valdanylchuk/breezydemo
131•isitcontent•5h ago•14 comments

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

https://vecti.com
234•vecti•7h ago•113 comments

Dark Alley Mathematics

https://blog.szczepan.org/blog/three-points/
28•quibono•4d ago•1 comments

A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/
57•jnord•3d ago•3 comments

Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS

https://github.com/microsoft/litebox
302•aktau•11h ago•152 comments

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
304•ostacke•11h ago•82 comments

Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

https://eljojo.github.io/rememory/
160•eljojo•8h ago•121 comments

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/
377•todsacerdoti•13h ago•214 comments

Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

https://github.com/phreda4/r3
44•phreda4•4h ago•7 comments

An Update on Heroku

https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/
305•lstoll•11h ago•230 comments

I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

https://infisical.com/blog/devops-to-solutions-engineering
100•vmatsiiako•10h ago•34 comments

How to effectively write quality code with AI

https://heidenstedt.org/posts/2026/how-to-effectively-write-quality-code-with-ai/
167•i5heu•8h ago•127 comments

Learning from context is harder than we thought

https://hy.tencent.com/research/100025?langVersion=en
138•limoce•3d ago•76 comments

Understanding Neural Network, Visually

https://visualrambling.space/neural-network/
223•surprisetalk•3d ago•29 comments

FORTH? Really!?

https://rescrv.net/w/2026/02/06/associative
36•rescrv•12h ago•17 comments

I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

https://kirkville.com/i-now-assume-that-all-ads-on-apple-news-are-scams/
956•cdrnsf•14h ago•413 comments

Introducing the Developer Knowledge API and MCP Server

https://developers.googleblog.com/introducing-the-developer-knowledge-api-and-mcp-server/
8•gfortaine•2h ago•0 comments

PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok

https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-vault-prolok.html
7•kmm•4d ago•0 comments

Evaluating and mitigating the growing risk of LLM-discovered 0-days

https://red.anthropic.com/2026/zero-days/
33•lebovic•1d ago•11 comments

I'm going to cure my girlfriend's brain tumor

https://andrewjrod.substack.com/p/im-going-to-cure-my-girlfriends-brain
30•ray__•1h ago•6 comments

Claude Composer

https://www.josh.ing/blog/claude-composer
97•coloneltcb•2d ago•68 comments

The Oklahoma Architect Who Turned Kitsch into Art

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-31/oklahoma-architect-bruce-goff-s-wild-home-desi...
17•MarlonPro•3d ago•2 comments

Show HN: Smooth CLI – Token-efficient browser for AI agents

https://docs.smooth.sh/cli/overview
76•antves•1d ago•56 comments

Show HN: Slack CLI for Agents

https://github.com/stablyai/agent-slack
37•nwparker•1d ago•8 comments

How virtual textures work

https://www.shlom.dev/articles/how-virtual-textures-really-work/
23•betamark•12h ago•22 comments

Evolution of car door handles over the decades

https://newatlas.com/automotive/evolution-car-door-handle/
38•andsoitis•3d ago•61 comments

The Beauty of Slag

https://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/beauty-slag
27•sohkamyung•3d ago•3 comments