Douglas Avenue and Reversing Falls

 

Second day in Saint John, NB, exploring the old town on foot.

While much of the city looks quite different, Douglas Avenue looks the same as ever. 

The leaves are just starting to change.

Vocational High School is still standing.

The first peek at the river.

The NB Museum is now a research and archive center.  The exhibits are on display in a mall now and that will soon move to Sussex just like Barbour's General Store.

Right this way folks, for a riverside view of Reversing Falls.

The Irving Pulp and Paper Mill dominates the skyline.  The smokestacks can be seen from miles away and can serve as an ugly landmark for visitors navigating the city.  Probably the nicest change in this city is the reduction of smell since filters were introduced.  I remember the overpowering foul stench of sulphur and God knows what used to come out of there.  On foggy days, the smell just hung everywhere.  Now, those things are odorless.  For all you would know, they might just be emitting harmless steam but I have to doubt that.  An elderly man I met on a trail complained to me that there was an unacceptably high rate of young people getting cancer in this town.   

There it is, with the bridge connecting the east side of town to the west.  There are no falls.  The name is deceptive.  Waterfalls that moved up as well as down would indeed be incredible but that is not what this is. There is a basin near the mouth of the Saint John River just before it enters the Bay of Fundy.  Twice a day at high tide, the ocean forces the current of the river back upstream.  This causes turmoil and whirlpools.  The water is quite rough.   

 

I love this quote from Wikipedia.  "The Falls were even given the dubious distinction by one publication as being among the worst tourist attractions in the world."  

The displays tell the story of the construction of the bridge.   There were a few failed attempts.  Three?  One failure of engineering was quite spectacular, sending several workers to their deaths in the early phase of construction.

Personally, I didn't like the look of this zipline for tourists.  Notice the lack of a guard rail on the top platform.  They seem to be out of business now.  Let's hope nobody was hurt in the meantime.

Looking back at the visitor center with the blue roof.

Outside of the park, I thought this fire hydrant was in an odd place, all by itself, far from anything else so I followed this forgotten little road.  Why not?

It got a little mucky. 

Predictably, it led to a quieter part of the river.