One wonders why a postcard like this was printed? What do Niagara Falls and Coke Ovens in Pennsylvania have to do with each other?
Interestingly, in the early 1900s, this type of postcard was not unusual. Postcards were often advertisements to promote America in different ways. This vintage postcard is actually a promotion of not only natural resources but American industry. For both the coke ovens in Pennsylvania and the mighty falls at Niagara were generating energy to fuel the Industrial Revolution taking place in this country.
Niagara Falls was the source of energy to fuel the turbines generating the first long distance transmittal of electricity from the Adams Power Plant in Niagara Falls, New York to Buffalo, New York in 1896. While the coke ovens in PA fueled the generating of steel – the backbone of building in the early 1900s.