Daredevils & Honeymooners

Over the years, the glory of Niagara Falls has brought out professional daredevils, as well as the self-destructive amateurs. In 1859, the French tightrope walker Blondin successfully crossed Niagara Gorge, from the American to the Canadian side, on a 3-inch-thick rope. On his shoulders was his reluctant, terrified manager; on both shores stood some 100,000 spectators. "Thank God it is over," exclaimed the future King Edward VII of England, after the completion of the walk. "Please never attempt it again."

But others did. From the early 18th century, dozens went over in boats, rubber balls, and those famous barrels. Not a single one survived—until schoolteacher Annie Taylor in 1901. Emerging from her barrel, she asked, “Did I go over the falls yet?”

The stunts were finally outlawed in 1912, but nothing stops the determined: in 1985 two stuntmen survived a plunge, and two years later, canoe expert Nolan Whitesell (with a legal permit) mastered the rapids below the falls.

Besides daredevils, the other thing that springs to mind at the mention of Niagara are honeymoons. The first high-profile honeymooners arrived in 1801: Aaron Burr’s daughter Theodosia and her husband. Shortly after, in 1804, Jerome Bonaparte (brother of Napoléon) and his bride, the daughter of a prosperous Baltimore merchant, followed suit. By the mid-1800s honeymoons at Niagara had become quite the rage and were a definite status symbol for young couples. Though Niagara Falls doesn’t hold the cachet it once did, it remains a quintessential honeymoon spot. Today more than 50,000 couples honeymoon here every year, many of them staying in opulent suites in one of the casino hotels.