There Is a Century-Old Tunnel Under Niagara and You Can Walk Out of It
For a hundred years the water that turned the generators at the Niagara Parks Power Station left through a tunnel bored 180 feet beneath it, ran 2,200 feet through solid rock, and emptied back into the river at the bottom of the gorge. The station shut, the tunnel drained, and it now ends in a viewing platform at the base of the Horseshoe Falls. You go down in a glass-panelled lift, walk the whole length of it, and come out into daylight with the falls in front of you.
This is not Journey Behind the Falls, which is a different tunnel under different management that puts you behind the sheet of water. This one puts you underneath the power station and out at river level looking back up. If you are trying to work out which underground thing to book, the honest answer is that they are unrelated and both are worth doing.
Three hours in total, meeting in the Skylon Tower lobby, with Skylon admission included along with the Illumination Tower, the Daredevil Exhibit and a guide who will tell you rather more about Nikola Tesla than you were expecting. Booking with us also unlocks the Niagara Fun Pack, a set of local savings sent before you travel.
What Three Hours Underground and Above Get You
How the Three Hours Run
On foot throughout, meeting in the Skylon Tower lobby on Robinson Street.
Meet, Then Go Up
The group gathers in the Skylon Tower lobby by the coffee shop. Admission is included and pre-reserved, so you go straight up rather than queuing. Starting 775 feet above the river is deliberate: you see the whole system from the top before spending the rest of the morning underneath it.
Inside the Generating Hall
Into the Niagara Parks Power Station, which produced electricity from 1905 until 2006 and then sat shut. The generator hall has been left largely as it was, turbines and marble control panels and all. This is where the Tesla argument gets told, and where the scale of what was built here starts to register.
180 Feet Down in a Glass Lift
A glass-panelled elevator drops you through the rock beneath the station, so you watch the strata go past on the way down. It takes under a minute and it reframes what you are about to walk into. At the bottom the tailrace tunnel runs off into the dark in a straight line.
2,200 Feet, and Then Daylight
The tunnel is brick-lined, cool, damp and dead straight, and carried the station's water for a century. You walk the full length of it with the light at the far end getting slowly larger, and step out onto a platform at the bottom of the gorge with the Horseshoe Falls directly in front of you. Very few people at Niagara see them from here.
Included & Not Included
✓ Included
- Niagara Parks Power Station admission
- The Tunnel, all 2,200 feet, and the gorge-level viewing platform
- Skylon Tower observation deck admission
- The Illumination Tower and the Daredevil Exhibit
- A guide for the full three hours
- All admissions pre-reserved, so no ticket queues
- Niagara Fun Pack with exclusive local discounts
✕ Not Included
- Wheelchair or pushchair access, the operator states this tour cannot accommodate either
- Journey Behind the Falls, which is a different tunnel on a different tour
- Meals, drinks and hotel pickup
- Gratuities, appreciated but never required
The group meets inside the Skylon Tower lobby on Robinson Street, by the coffee shop. This is a walking tour with no transport included, so make your own way there and allow time to park. Your exact start time and guide details are confirmed instantly with your booking.
Before You Go
What Guests Say About This Tour
"I have been to Niagara perhaps a dozen times and had no idea this tunnel existed. Walking 2,200 feet through rock and stepping out at the bottom of the gorge was the most memorable thing I have done here."
"Our guide was genuinely knowledgeable about the engineering rather than reciting a script. The Tesla section was excellent. My teenage son, who had been bored by the falls, was completely absorbed by the generator hall."
"Do read the accessibility note. My father uses a stick and we moved him to the Skylon ticket on its own instead, which was the right call. The rest of us did this and it was superb."
"Poured with rain all day and this barely mattered, we were underground or indoors for nearly all of it. Also worth saying it is not the same as Journey Behind the Falls, we did both and they are completely different."
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and the two get confused constantly. Journey Behind the Falls takes you into tunnels cut through the bedrock to portals directly behind the sheet of falling water. This tunnel runs beneath the Niagara Parks Power Station and emerges at the base of the Horseshoe Falls, at river level, looking back up at them. Different tunnel, different operator, different view. Plenty of people do both.
At the bottom of the gorge, at the base of the Horseshoe Falls. You go down 180 feet in a glass-panelled lift, walk the 2,200 foot tunnel that carried water away from the turbines for a century, and come out onto an observation platform at river level with the falls in front of you.
Yes, admission is included and the tour meets in the Skylon lobby. Along the way you also see the Illumination Tower and the Daredevil Exhibit. Admissions are pre-reserved, so you walk past the ticket queues rather than standing in them.
No. The operator states this tour is not suitable for guests using wheelchairs or with mobility impairments, and pushchairs cannot be taken. There is significant walking and the tunnel itself is long. If accessibility matters, our Skylon Tower admission and our Fireworks and Falls Glow walking tour are both step-free.
That one is an evening: the Currents light show projected through the generating hall, a three-course dinner and the illumination controls. This is the daytime version and it is the one that includes the Tunnel, which the evening tour does not. Take this for the underground and the history, and that one for the show and the meal.
About three hours, meeting in the lobby of the Skylon Tower on Robinson Street. Look for your guide by the coffee shop. It is a walking tour with no transport, so make your own way there and allow time to park.
Older children generally love the lift and the tunnel, and the Tesla and daredevil stories land well. It is three hours of walking with a long underground stretch, so it suits school age upward rather than toddlers, and pushchairs are not permitted.
Yes. The Power Station, the Tunnel and the Skylon Tower are all indoor or sheltered and open through the winter, which makes this one of the better cold-weather and wet-weather options at Niagara. Only the platform at the tunnel mouth is exposed.
