I Forgot To Post This A Couple Of Days Ago

[Steely Dan]

This is from a history channel email I get.

 

October 24: General Interest

1901 : First barrel ride down Niagara Falls

 

On this day in 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie

Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over

Niagara Falls in a barrel.

 

After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York-born

Taylor moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City,

Michigan, around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article

about the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of

the growing popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on

the border of upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash

and seeking fame, Taylor came up with the perfect

attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls

in a barrel.

 

Taylor was not the first person to attempt the plunge over the

famous falls. In October 1829, Sam Patch, known as the

Yankee Leaper, survived jumping down the 175-foot Horseshoe

Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border.

More than 70 years later, Taylor chose to take the ride on her

birthday, October 24. (She claimed she was in her 40s, but

genealogical records later showed she was 63.) With the help

of two assistants, Taylor strapped herself into a leather harness

inside an old wooden pickle barrel five feet high and three feet

in diameter. With cushions lining the barrel to break her fall,

Taylor was towed by a small boat into the middle of the

fast-flowing Niagara River and cut loose.

 

Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then

propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached

the shore alive, if a bit battered, around 20 minutes after her

journey began. After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking

engagements, Taylor's fame cooled, and she was unable to

make the fortune for which she had hoped. She did, however,

inspire a number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and

1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived.

Among those who died were Jesse Sharp, who took the plunge

in a kayak in 1990, and Robert Overcracker, who used a jet ski

in 1995. No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is

illegal, and survivors face charges and stiff fines on either

side of the border.

 

What's really stupid is that a lot of talus was deposited in 1954 which means that any barrel rides after that year hit a lot of rock after going over the falls making the ride a lot more dangerous.

 

That's not nearly as stupid though as trying a kayak or a jet ski!!

 

The next guy should go over in a wet suit.

[Steely Dan]

A Youtube

guide. Kinda boring but informative and you get to see some of the stuff that went over the falls.

 

I couldn't find footage of the idiots on the jet ski or kayak.