Niagara Frontier

Touring the Restored Forts

Getting There

by James P. Werbaneth, Alison Park, Pennsylvania

The Niagara area is very easy to reach by car. On the American side of the border, the New York Thruway (Interstate 90) and Interstate 290 offer easy access from both the east and west. In Ontario, the QEW connects it with Toronto and the Cartier-MacDonald Freeway (Highway 401), and thence to Windsor and Detroit in the west, and Ottawa and Montréal to the east.

Once there, access to the forts is just as simple. In New York, the Robert Moses State Parkway is a direct, limited-access highway, off-limits to commercial traffic that connects the Falls on one end with Fort Niagara on the other. Canada's version is the Niagara Parkway, from the Peace Bridge at the city of Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It is more built-up through most of its length than the Robert Moses Parkway, and in Niagara Falls the route turns decidedly urban and congested.

Still, it is the best way for visitors to see the sights on the Canadian side of the river. Fort Erie, called "Historic Fort Erie," is at its western end, just off the Peace Bridge from Buffalo. From there, the Niagara Parkway offers a direct route to the Falls, and to the battlefields along the way, with abundant direction signs. Conveniently, it ends at Niagara-on-the-Lake, nearly at the gates of Fort George.

For Americans at least, crossing the border in either direction presents little difficulty. The Canadian border guards want to know little beyond one's birthplace and citizenship, destination, and whether the traveler is carrying contraband, particularly guns. The American ones can be even less demanding. In my experience, neither requested identification, and both were visibly bored. However, I did see American guards at the Peace Bridge search several cars and cargo trailers.

The Canadian tourist destinations accept both countries' currency, with a discount for American money. The fact that change is given in Canadian money can lead to strange case of getting more money back then tendered in the first place; I paid the four-dollar admission to Fort George with an American twenty dollar bill, and received twenty-four Canadian dollars in change.

Niagara Frontier Touring the Restored Forts

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© Copyright 1996 by David W. Tschanz.
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