[americanhero]

wow, that's impressive!! And what a story.
He really was being there in the right place at the right time.

[Matt]

Yeah, really interesting! Did the tourist just Google the falls after this happened and then find your website and contact you with the story and photos?

Not sure, but he found Brenda first and Brenda led me to him.

[HaloGirl]

Wow!

[Mark J]

The height of the splash is at least half the height of the falls, and that's just at the instant he clicked the photo so it could have been even higher.

[Mark J]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, a great time to visit nyfalls.com! The big news this month was Arthur Lovell’s photograph of the collapse of a tour-bus size (or larger) chunk of rock from the upper reaches of the Taughannock Falls amphitheater, crashing some 215 feet into the pool below. The resulting splash reached up to about half the height of the falls, or 100-plus feet.

Of course, rocks falling into the region’s many gorges is nothing newsworthy – it’s been going on for thousands of years and continues generally unnoticed on a daily basis, though typically on a smaller scale. The unusual thing here is that the scene was captured in a dramatic pair of before and after photographs, shot from the overlook on Taughannock Park Rd.

Coincidentally, November also happens to be the month that Taughannock Falls is featured in the beautiful 2010 waterfalls calendar http://waterfallcalendar.com/, published by Dewey Neild Photography of Ithaca. http://www.deweyneild.com/
Neild has captured images of “T. Falls” in various seasons and lighting conditions, but this month’s calendar image is of interest as it was shot from below, revealing that the now-collapsed area was seriously overhung. Click here to see Neild's photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7812552@N03/5206879999/

Dewey’s image also points out just how close this rockfall was to the crest of the falls. It’s only a matter of time until the crest itself crumbles backwards, altering the falls’ iconic right-angle shape. Another point of comparison between the Lovell and Neild photos – it’s apparent that the major rock fall on November 4 was preceded by one or more smaller ones from the same area, as voids that are apparent in the more recent pic are not there in the older one. Comparing with a photo (below) taken several years ago, ongoing loss of rock from the upper reaches of the amphitheater is very apparent.

Taughannock Falls NY Offcial Photo.jpg (47.38 KiB) Viewed 1490 times

Nyfalls.com has estimated the recently fallen chunk at 54 feet long. Taking an average height of 12 feet and average thickness of 2 feet, the massive chunk would have weighed some 100 tons and displaced about 10,000 gallons of water.

[hobkyl]

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article ... %20suicide

[Brenda]

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20101203/NEWS01/12030339/Body+of+woman+in+Taughannock+Creek+identified

[GovMule]

Wow talk about being in the right place at the right time!

No kidding. What are the chances of capturing that occurrence ? I would guess chances are better than at any point in history. Camera use has to be at an all time high. Still,to get that shot is quite amazing.

[Artist4God]

I have some shots of these beautiful falls here:

http://www.artist4god.net/wp-content/up ... G_4939.jpg
http://www.artist4god.net/wp-content/up ... G_4942.jpg

[HaloGirl]

Nice, Rose!

[Artist4God]

Nice, Rose!

Thank you very much! I'll have to go back sometime soon and take some more.

[Artist4God]

A couple more shots I had. If you click on them, then click on them again you can see them much bigger...especially the first one.

[ApproachingLight]

nice shots Rose.

[Artist4God]

nice shots Rose.

Why thank you!

[bremer]

I know we don't need too many more taughannock photos but I thought I'd share a quick story with mine... I ended up waiting about an hour for the porch to clear for just long enough to take this shot and while I missed the best lighting on the trees as a result, who could complain with warm weather and this view? While waiting, I lost count of how many people pulled up their cars, asked "what is this place?", took a picture with their camera phone and literally got back in the car to drive away seconds later. The few people who seemed to be inspired didn't exactly stick around long either. I figured the average visit duration during the hour was 2-4 minutes. Its hard to exactly define but I couldn't help but feel disappointed in society/humanity/ect. It reminded me a great deal of my trip to the grand canyon - people spend hours or days driving there and everywhere you look there are signs of boredom and indifference. To each his own, but I just can't imagine what my life would be like if a sight like this meant nothing. After a brutal work week this sure put things in perspective - its good to be alive.