Ithaca Is Gorges: Ithaca Falls

You have probably seen it on a bumper sticker or a t shirt, that cheerful pun, Ithaca is Gorges. It is a joke, of course, on the word gorgeous, but it is also simply true. The slogan was dreamed up in the nineteen seventies by Howard Cogan, a Cornell graduate and Ithaca College professor, who came up with the line for the local chamber of commerce and, in a very Ithaca gesture, gave it away and took no payment for it.

Stand at the foot of Ithaca Falls and you will understand why the town leans into the pun. Here, where Fall Creek makes its final drop before reaching the flats, the water pours over a rock face about one hundred fifty feet high and roughly one hundred seventy-five feet wide, among the best known of the many waterfalls in and around the city. Three great gorges cut right through Ithaca, Cascadilla, Fall Creek, and Six Mile Creek, each carved by the same ancient forces that shaped the lake.

Local boosters love to say there are around one hundred fifty waterfalls within ten miles, a figure repeated so often it has become gospel, though it is more of a proud estimate than a careful count. Either way, the point stands. Few American cities have this much falling water woven straight through their streets.

Ithaca really is gorges.