The Reversing Falls are a series of rapids on the Saint John River located in Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, where the river runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy

Bay of Fundy

The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...

.

The diurnal tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s of the bay force the flow of water to reverse against the prevailing current at this location when the tide is high, although in the spring freshet

Freshet

A freshet can refer to one of two things:* A flood resulting from heavy rain or a spring thaw. Whereas heavy rain often causes a flash flood, a spring thaw event is generally a more incremental process, depending upon local climate and topography...

, this is frequently surpassed by the downstream volume of water. The rapids, or "falls", are created by a series of underwater ledges which roil the water in either direction, causing a significant navigation hazard, despite the depth of water. As a result, vessels wishing to enter or exit from the river must wait for slack tide.

The Reversing Falls has also been an important industrial site for over a century. The Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

 constructed the Reversing Falls Railway Bridge

Reversing Falls Railway Bridge

The Reversing Falls Railway Bridge is the name given to two different steel truss bridges crossing the Saint John River at the same location in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada....

 in 1885 and this structure was replaced in 1922; it is currently used by the New Brunswick Southern Railway

New Brunswick Southern Railway

The New Brunswick Southern Railway and Eastern Maine Railway form a 189-mile railway system operating a former Canadian Pacific Railway mainline between Saint John, New Brunswick and Brownville Junction, Maine....

. The railway bridge crosses the gorge immediately downstream from the falls, parallel to the Reversing Falls Road Bridge

Reversing Falls Bridge

The Reversing Falls Bridge is a 2-lane highway bridge crossing the Saint John River at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It carries New Brunswick Route 100 across the river and there is no toll for its use.-History:...

.

The location of the falls was the site of a foundry

Foundry

A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...

 and other light industrial operations on the east side of the gorge, while a large pulp

Pulp and Paper

Pulp and Paper is the name of the largest United States-based trade magazine for the pulp and paper industry. See also: Paper engineering, Pulp and Paper Merit Badge...

 mill on the west side. J.D. Irving, the company which has operated the pulp mill since purchasing it in the late 1940s, has encountered some criticism in recent decades for maintaining the facility at what is viewed as one of Saint John's prime tourism locations. This criticism became most pronounced during the 1980s and 1990s when the city government created Fallsview Park on the former industrial foundry lands on the east side of the gorge. The Falls were even given the dubious distinction by one publication as being among the worst tourist attractions in the world.

During the late 1990s a tourist business was established, offering jet boat rides on the river in the vicinity of the falls; however the boats do not operate in the roughest areas which experience a 3-metre drop in water level over a very short distance. The operators tend to stay in the choppy waters immediately downstream and attempt to soak passengers by driving through small whirlpools at the base of the railway bridge. Another more recent development at the Reversing Falls has been its growing use as a whitewater kayaking

Whitewater kayaking

Whitewater kayaking is the sport of paddling a kayak on a moving body of water, typically a whitewater river. Whitewater kayaking can range from simple, carefree gently moving water, to demanding, dangerous whitewater. River rapids are graded like ski runs according to the difficulty, danger or...

location, made unique by the changes in formation of the rapids during incoming or outgoing tides.