Trapped for a Century Above Niagara Falls, Barge Breaks Free

There's going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and now there's the possibility of something a little scarier: A barge that's been stuck above Horseshoe Falls for more than a century. A big Halloween storm apparently dislodged the iron dumping scow, which for now has just moved downriver and doesn't appear to be in danger of going over. "It looks secure at the moment; however, if there's severe weather that comes along, it may shift it some more," Niagara Parks CEO David Adames tells the CBC.

"It could have been the way the wind came down the river," Adames says. "If it came down at a high enough gust, at that point in time, it might have hit the side of the rusted structure and it was enough to move it." The scow had been lodged in the same place ever since it was marooned there in 1918, when it broke away from a tug boat and scuttled on rocks in the Niagara River; two crew members aboard it had to be rescued. (More Niagara Falls stories.)