“It seems a tumbling ocean; and you yourself what a helpless atom amid these vast and eternal workings of gigantic nature!” wrote one 19th-century observer at Niagara Falls. Attempting to match nature’s grandeur with the genius of modern engineering, an 841-foot-long bridge was constructed in 1850–51, spanning the Niagara Gorge and linking the United States and Canada. Less than three years later, the bridge was destroyed by powerful winds; its dangling cables remain visible in William Notman’s photograph. Not until the end of the 19th century would a new bridge be constructed.