<P> During the 19th century, tourism became popular, and by mid-century, it was the area's main industry . Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr and her husband Joseph Alston, were the first recorded couple to honeymoon there in 1801 . Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Jérôme visited with his bride in the early 19th century . </P> <P> In 1837 during the Caroline affair, a rebel supply ship, the Caroline, was burned and sent over the falls . In March 1848, ice blockage caused the falls to stop; no water (or at best a trickle) fell for as much as 40 hours . Waterwheels stopped, mills and factories shut down for having no power . </P> <P> Later that year, demand for passage over the Niagara River led to the building of a footbridge and then Charles Ellet's Niagara Suspension Bridge . This was supplanted by German - born John Augustus Roebling's Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge in 1855 . After the American Civil War, the New York Central Railroad publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and honeymoon visits . With increased railroad traffic, in 1886, Leffert Buck replaced Roebling's wood and stone bridge with the predominantly steel bridge that still carries trains over the Niagara River today . The first steel archway bridge near the falls was completed in 1897 . Known today as the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, it carries passenger vehicles and trains between Canada (through Canadian Customs Border Control) and the U.S.A. just downstream of the falls . </P> <P> In 1912, much of the water coming over the American Falls froze, though a trickle still ran and the falls ran at the other two sites . </P>

How did the niagara falls get its name