I’ve been seeing a lot of “taller than Niagara Falls” lately. “This waterfall is taller than Niagara Falls.” “This rollercoaster is taller than Niagara Falls.” “This refurbished skyscraper-turned-boutique hotel in a Rust Belt city is taller than Niagara Falls.” This is all true. It’s also all misdirection.
The impressive thing about Niagara Falls isn’t its height. It’s tall. Don’t get me wrong. That’s a tall water-bearing rock formation right there. But the impressive thing about Niagara Falls isn’t its height. It’s how big it is. Niagara Falls is gigantic. Thunderous. Wide. Moving. And it’s convenient to visit. Even for non-Americans. You know how hard it is to get to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, compared to upstate New York?
Niagara Falls isn’t the world’s alpha waterfall because of its height. It’s the world’s alpha waterfall because it’s massive and it’s got good marketing. So stop saying things are taller than it like that’s some sort of big deal. Talk to me when your high school football complex has a flow rate of more than two thousand cubic meters per second.
