The New Suspension Bridge, as it is called, just below the ferry at the Falls, was built in 1868. It is a light, graceful structure, standing one hundred and ninety feet above the water. Its length is twelve hundred feet, after the Brooklyn bridge the longest structure of the kind in the world, and it is the narrowest of those designed for carriage travel. To its narrowness it probably owed its safety from destruction during a fierce gale which occurred in the fall of 1869. The fastenings or dowels of several of the guys on the Canadian side were torn out, and the bridge at its center deflected down-stream more than its width, so that the surface of its road-way could not be seen half its length. Then its undulations from end to end--like a stair-carpet being shaken between two persons--were frightful, and for a time it was feared that either cables or towers must give way. After the gale subsided the old guys were made fast again, new ones were added, and two two-inch steel wire cables were stretched from bank to bank, and connected with the bridge by wire stays. Wrought-iron beams were afterward placed on the bottom stringers, and channel irons on the top beams of the side trestles, all of which were strongly bolted together. These improvements added much to the strength of the whole structure, and greatly increased its ability to resist horizontal deflection. CHAPTER XVII. Blondin and his "ascensions"--Visit of the Prince of Wales--Grand illumination of the Falls--The steamer _Caroline_--The water-power of Niagara--Lord Dufferin and the plan of an International Park. In the year 1858, a short, well-rounded, fair-complexioned, light-haired Frenchman made his appearance at the Falls, and expressed a wish to put a tight-rope across the chasm below them, for the purpose of crossing on the rope and exhibiting athletic feats. He received little encouragement, but, having a Napoleonic faith in his star, he persevered, and finally obtained the necessary authority to place his rope just below the Railway Suspension Bridge. It was a well and evenly twisted rope, about two inches in diameter; and after stretching it as taut as it could be drawn, it hung in a moderate catenary curve. Commencing at the shore ends he secured stays of small rope to the large one, placing them about eight feet apart. These were made fast to the shore in such a manner that all the stays on one side of the main rope were parallel to each other from the center outward to the ends. They were made tight somewhat in the manner that tent-cords are tightened, and when the structure was complete it looked like the opposite sections of a gigantic spider-web.