[1] Moreover, the public was captivated by the natural wonder of the Falls, considered a landmark of the North American landscape and a major tourist destination.

David C. Huntington, whose writing on Church in the 1960s revived interest in the painter, explained how Americans, in an era of spiritual optimism and manifest destiny, would have perceived such a vivid painting of Niagara, with all that it symbolized: Church presented his fellow-men with the "soul" and "spirit" of Niagara, this "most suggestive" of nature's spectacles: this archetype of the universe.

The canvas's unusual proportions allowed him to paint a panoramic view from the Canadian side of the falls; the composition leads the eye laterally.

The vantage point was dramatic and unique, leaving behind the "canonical banality" of many other paintings before it,[6] the merely picturesque, and immersing the viewer directly in the scene, as if airborne or even in the water.

[7] Church brings the viewer to the lip of the falls, highlighting the impressive drop by painting in streams of water and cloudy mists.

The foam might suggest that the tree is caught on an unseen rock; there is ambiguity in whether this location is a small respite of stability or highlights the imminent danger of reaching the fall's edge.

[9] Church's extensive study of the falls allowed him to capture the effect of mist and turbulent water with unprecedented realism.

The light creates a partial rainbow beyond the precipice, whose arc is strong where the mist is thick, and absent elsewhere, a highly realistic rendering and a technical achievement.

He re-worked the sky so that it was more unified with the water, "more subservient to the cataract", but felt limited in the changes he could make by the many copies of the popular Niagara that existed at that point, in engraving and chromolithography.

Between May 1 and 29, 1857, tens of thousands paid 25 cents to view the painting—which was greatly praised by local critics—in a darkened Manhattan gallery in which only the painting was illuminated.

Niagara was exhibited at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where it won a silver medal[4] and improved the European view of American art.

[16] It was uniquely realistic and "without 'manner'", marking the beginning of a new era for Hudson River artists,[16] such as Jasper Francis Cropsey, Martin Johnson Heade, John Frederick Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, and Régis François Gignoux.

[3] When the Corcoran closed in 2014, its collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Art, also in Washington, D.C. Church made two more finished paintings of the Falls.