A plan that could see the American side of Niagara Falls go dry for a short period of time to rebuild two bridges might be a boon to Canadian tourism.

New York State officials held a public hearing on Wednesday to discuss whether to turn off the taps on their side of the waterway while replacing 115-year-old bridges.

To do this, they might stem the flow on the American side of the falls while redirecting Niagara River water to the Canadian side.

“We would divert,” Randy Simons, of the New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, said in a telephone interview. “The water would go over the Canadian side.”

Niagara Parks Commission chair Janice Thomson says the dry rock wall would attract tourists like a nearly frozen falls did two years ago.

Both Thomson and Simons say the project will have little effect on the environment and a nesting pair of falcons that live on the gorge will be fine.

Ontario Power Generation, which helps control the flow of water over the falls along with its American counterparts, says it won’t result in more power for Canada because the turbines are upriver of the falls.

Simons called the dry falls “a once-in-a-lifetime” event “because beyond fixing these bridges, there is no reason to dewater the falls.”

A 131-page report on the proposed designs, along with drawings, was presented to the public at Wednesday's hearing, held in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

“The meeting went great,” Simons said. “People love the idea to fix the bridges — there was no real opposition.”

The public won’t see rocks instead of water on the American side of the iconic falls for several years, Simons said.

“You’re looking at at least three, five, seven years,” Simons said. “We don’t have any funding on this.”

It would take federal funding to support the project, expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, Simons said.

One of the “de-watering” proposals involves shutting the American falls down for five months and the other for seven months, Simons said.

Temporary truss structures have been in place over the bridges since 2004, when a big piece of one of the bridges fell into the Niagara River below, leaving a gaping void.

The bridges were built in 1900 and 1901 and they have been refurbished in 1969, 1980, 2004 and 2013. The proposal the park is recommending involves concrete archways similar to the original bridges. The proposed plans envision widening the bridges so that they could support trolleys.

If “de-watering” occurs, it wouldn’t be the first time the falls went dry.

U.S. engineers diverted water away from the American falls for several months in 1969.

Engineers then strengthened faults in the falls’ foundation to stem erosion.

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The water-less falls in 1969 actually proved to be a tourism draw and that could happen again, Simons said.

“They had a unique tourism opportunity when that happened,” Simons said. “We think it would be a huge tourism draw (again). It would be a once-in-a-lifetime (opportunity).”

Back on March 29, 1848, the falls went silent for 30 hours after millions of tons of ice blocked the source of the river.

During that dry day, some local residents walked and rode horses on the falls’ bed.

Some of them collected souvenirs, including bayonets and tomahawks believed to be from the War of 1812.

With files from Associated Press, The Canadian Press