The Falls

You know how things always seem bigger when you’re young?  You go back as an adult and your childhood home is actually small and cramped. That steep mountain that your brother biked down and ended up with some impressive stitches from is now just a hill.  Well, somehow Niagara Falls got bigger.  

I took the girls there when they were young and we did the Maid of the Mist boat ride and got duly soaked and seasick (me) but I don’t remember being able to get so close to the top of the Falls.  I’m sure they didn’t build this ridiculously close viewing walkway in the last 25 years so perhaps I wisely kept my small offspring away from it.  It’s terrifying.

Oh sure, why not?

Since 1850 an estimated 5,000 bodies have been recovered from the base of the Falls.  Some were suicides, some were accidents, and some were failed daredevils.

We’ve all heard about those incredibly stupid people going over the Falls in a barrel, but the first person to do so and survive was a woman.  Annie Taylor was a widowed former school teacher and in rather dire financial circumstances.  In 1901, when she was 63 years old (my age!), she decided this would be a good way to secure her future.  She had a large barrel made, padded it with mattresses, shoved her cat in and sent it on its way.  When the cat survived it apparently hung around long enough for a photo op with Annie and then she went over herself two days later. 

Annie had a few bruises and a cut on her head.

She never made much money from the stunt, partly because she claimed to be 42 years old and people weren’t interested in seeing “an old woman” up on stage (!) but mainly because her manager ran away with the barrel and most of her money was spent on private detectives trying to get it back.  

The second person to survive was Englishman Bobby Leach ten years later.  He went over in a custom metal barrel that appeared to be short on padding.  He shattered both his kneecaps and his jaw, and spent six months in hospital, but he went on to have a successful worldwide touring career as the First Man To Go Over The Falls.  But then he slipped on an orange peel and died. 

Niagara Falls was for a time considered the Honeymoon Capital of the World.  I can’t imagine why.  Perhaps it’s a guy thing.  Dan was thrilled by it but I found the experience of standing five feet from all that powerful water plunging over the top deeply unnerving.  I felt woozy and lightheaded and needed a large martini and a lie down…… Oh. ……..Right.