Stone Bridge Over Upper Taughannock Creek Gorge Royalty-Free Stock Photography

Taughannock Creek is of a group of waterways that feed Cayuga Lake from the hills on all sides. The floor of the gorge is a light gray limestone, the evolution of lime mud that was made from algae and other marine organism shells. You can see fossilized remains in the floor of the stream and some of the large stone blocks at the base of the falls. The crumbling walls of the gorge are shale, composed of clay and silt that fell on top of the lime mud and hardened into rock. At the very top of the cliff walls are sturdier layers of sandstone and siltstone.