A 96 foot waterfall drops through a stone gorge lined with nineteenth century mill buildings and a green iron footbridge.
What High Falls looks like
The falls drop 96 feet over the Genesee River in a single overhanging sheet, in a stone gorge inside downtown Rochester. Brick and stone mill buildings line both rims, and a green iron footbridge crosses the gorge just downstream of the drop.
The gives an elevated view straight onto the falls, and Terrace Park sits at the south rim below it. The park has paved paths, benches and an accessible overlook cut into the retaining wall, with the next to it.
and Mill Street run along the same rim through the Brown's Race Historic District, one to six storey brick and stone buildings in Second Empire and Romanesque styles. The at 250 Mill Street keeps its original stone facade and mansard roof, and every principal building in the district is used commercially today.
A stone arch road bridge from 1893 crosses the Genesee at Andrews Street, a short walk downstream, with a seven storey brick mill on the near bank and more mill buildings on across the water. Looking south from that bridge, the gorge opens onto downtown Rochester's office towers.
Shot in High Falls
The Alphabet Killer and Drunk Bus both show High Falls on screen, the drop and the gorge visible in the background of their Rochester scenes. Neither source gives an exact camera position within High Falls Terrace Park.
The Alphabet Killer, 2008
High Falls
The climactic scene of The Alphabet Killer was shot near High Falls, with the drop and the gorge visible in the background. The source does not give an exact camera position within the park. Street View
Drunk Bus, 2020
Drunk Bus was shot on location in Rochester, and High Falls is visible in exterior shots alongside the Rochester Institute of Technology. The source does not name a specific vantage at the falls. Street View
The Great Falls of the Passaic is a 77 foot waterfall in a stone gorge, ringed by the same kind of 19th century brick mill district that lines Rochester's own gorge. A footbridge crosses the Paterson gorge too, at Overlook Park on the south rim. The basalt gorge walls at Paterson are darker and more jagged than Rochester's masonry retaining walls, which shows in a close wide shot. Try searching waterfall mill district now.
The Mill District in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi is ringed by the ruins and lofts of what was once the country's largest flour mill district, with the Stone Arch Bridge crossing just below the drop. The scale is larger than Rochester's, with a wider river and taller mills. The Stone Arch Bridge is a railroad viaduct rather than a footbridge, so its silhouette reads differently in a wide shot. Try searching flour mill ruins now.
Manayunk's mills sit beside a canal rather than a single vertical drop, brick factory buildings converted into lofts along the water. Rowhouses climb the hill behind the mills, which Rochester's gorge rim does not have. There is no comparable waterfall here, so this match works for the canal and the mill facades rather than for the drop itself. Try searching canal mill lofts now.
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