Niagara Falls is a city in New York known for its large waterfall that straddles the Canadian border. It was formed when glaciers melted into freshwater lakes that collided into one another. Niagara Falls is one of the most famous waterfalls in the world, regarded for its beauty, as well as its production of hydroelectric power. 

In Anna Letitia Barbauld's poem "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, a Poem," she touches on the subject of a rising America overshadowing England. Mentions of natural phenomena in America such as Niagara Falls contribute to this characterization.