Daredevils still making their mark in Niagara

“Stunting” and Niagara Falls share a relationship that dates back all the way to the mid 1800s. From people attempting to go over the falls in handcrafted barrels to kayakers taking on the mighty cataract with nothing but their vessel and a paddle,  there’s no shortage of thrill seekers attracted to Niagara Falls. In particular, tightrope walkers have been drawn from all around the world to try their death-deifying stunts trying to gain their claim to fame. One of the most famous walkers being Jean Francois Gravelet (The Great Blondin), who in 1859 crossed the Niagara gorge near where the Whirlpool Bridge now stands. Blondin crossed multiple times, each time outdoing the last. Some of these stunts including him crossing while blindfolded, walking backwards, legs and hands chained, with a wheelbarrow, and most famously crossing with his manager, Harry Calcord, on his back. After these crossings, there were many people who then attempted to outdo Blondin, such as William Leonard Hunt, Harry Lesile, and Maria Spelterina, but none of them got the same fame Blondin did.

In 1896, James Hardy preformed the last permitted tightrope walk until 2012 when Nik Wallenda walked directly over Niagara’s raging waterfalls, the first person to ever do so. Will this open up doors for daredevil stunts in Niagara Falls once again? Well possibly. Although the Wallenda walk garnered great attention focused on the Niagara Falls area, it was a long and tiring process to arrange the whole thing. They spent a lot of time waiting for laws to get passed to permit Wallenda to walk and prior to that, they had to convince all the right people that they wouldn’t regret buying into his dream. Nik’s walk brought Niagara Falls once again into a worldwide spotlight and now local officials are looking into a long-term tourist attraction with featuring Nik Wallenda.

Niagara Falls honored Nik with a monument yesterday with state and city officials in attendance thanking Nik.  See the video here for the highlights from the ceremony:

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