Stephen Peer (1840-1887) was a tightrope walker who, though he completed the feat successfully many times, fell to his death while walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York. They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge.
Peer had decided to become a tight rope walker when he was 19 years old, inspired by Blondin who had performed the trick over Niagara Falls. Peer had been born and raised in the Stamford Township and wanted to be the first local resident to successfully cross the falls on a tight rope. Peer became an assistant to Henry Bellini in 1873, but that ended when Peer attempted to use Bellini's equipment without his permission. Bellini reportedly tried to cut down a tight rope while Peer was standing on it, but the townsfolk ran Bellini out of town. On June 22, 1887, Peer completed a tight rope walk over the Niagara from the present Whirlpool Bridge and Penn Central Bridge, and back again. Three days later on June 25, 1887, Peer was reportedly with some friends, and had been drinking, and he fell off a tightrope to his death.
Stamford Township was a township in Upper Canada, later Ontario, on the Niagara Peninsula. It was originally designated Township #2 in the Home District of the Quebec Colony in Canada. Following the creation of Upper Canada in 1791, Township #2 was renamed Stamford and placed within the newly created County of Lincoln. When Lincoln county was divided into Lincoln (north) and Welland (south) counties in 1851, Township #2 was placed in Welland County.
John Augustus Roebling was a German-born American civil engineer. He designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Laura Secord was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked 20 miles (32 km) out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada. Though Laura Secord had no relation to it, most Canadians associate her with the Laura Secord Chocolates company, named after her on the centennial of her walk.
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope walking and slacklining.
Edward James Delahanty, nicknamed "Big Ed", was an American Major League Baseball player from 1888 to 1903 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Infants and Washington Senators. He was known as one of the game's early power hitters, and while primarily a left fielder during his career, he also played as an infielder. Delahanty won a batting title, batted over .400 three times, and has the fifth-highest batting average in MLB history. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. He died falling into Niagara Falls or the Niagara River after being removed from a train while intoxicated. His biographer argues that:
Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States, and was known for crossing the 1,100 ft (340 m) Niagara Gorge on a tightrope.
The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, which stood from 1855 to 1897 across the Niagara River, was the world's first working railway suspension bridge. It spanned 825 feet (251 m) and stood 2.5 miles (4.0 km) downstream of Niagara Falls, where it connected Niagara Falls, Ontario, to Niagara Falls, New York. Trains used the upper of its two decks, pedestrians and carriages the lower. The brainchild of Canadian politicians, the bridge was built by one American and one Canadian company. It was most commonly called the Suspension Bridge; other names included Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge, Niagara Suspension Bridge, and its official American name, the International Suspension Bridge.
Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.
The Flying Wallendas is the name of a circus act and daredevil stunt performers, most known for performing highwire acts without a safety net. They were first known as The Great Wallendas, but the current name was coined by the press in the 1940s and has stayed since.
William Leonard Hunt, also known by the stage name The Great Farini, was a well-known nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canadian funambulist, entertainment promoter and inventor, as well as the first known white man to cross the Kalahari Desert on foot and survive.
Double or Mutton is a 1955 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and released by Warner Bros. Pictures featuring Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. Mel Blanc provided for the voices of all the characters in this cartoon, however, like all Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog shorts, this short is mostly composed of visual gags.
Maria Spelterini was an Italian tightrope walker who was the only woman to cross the Niagara gorge on a tightrope, which she did on July 8, 1876 as part of a celebration of the U.S. Centennial. She used two and a quarter inch wire and crossed just north of the lower suspension bridge. She crossed again on July 12, 1876, this time wearing peach baskets strapped to her feet. She crossed blindfolded on July 19, and on July 22 she crossed with her ankles and wrists manacled.
Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic is a 1986 IMAX film directed and produced by Kieth Merrill. The film, currently shown hourly at Niagara Falls State Park's Adventure Theater on the American side of the border and multiple times daily at the IMAX Theatre located on the Canadian side of the border, shows the history of the Niagara Falls, dating back to the earliest legends.
William "Red" Hill Sr. was a Canadian daredevil and rescuer, born in Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1888. In 1896 he received his first medal for bravery when he rescued his sister from their burning house which was followed by a life-saving medal in 1912, achieving the status as a local hero. Hill would go on to receive a total of four medals in addition to being credited with saving 28 lives and the recovery of 177 accident and suicide victims from the Niagara River just below the Falls. His reputation grew as a renowned Canadian daredevil in 1930 with a five-hour journey in a 6-foot-long (1.8 m) steel barrel which began just below the falls at the Maid of the Mist boat landing and through the treacherous Niagara lower rapids ending up several miles down stream at Queenston, Ontario.
Nikolas Wallenda is an American acrobat, aerialist, daredevil, high wire artist, and author. He is known for his high-wire performances without a safety net. He holds nine Guinness World Records for various acrobatic feats, but is best known as the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls.
The Barryville–Shohola Bridge is the fifth generation of bridges constructed over the Delaware River at the communities of Shohola Township, Pennsylvania and Barryville, New York. The bridge serves both communities, with two major state legislative highways, Pennsylvania Traffic Route 434 and New York State Touring Route 55. The bridge itself is 812 feet (247 m) long and is 23 feet (7.0 m) wide, using four total spans across the river. It is maintained by the NY–PA Joint Interstate Bridge Commission, which is jointly owned by the states of New York and Pennsylvania.
Henri L'Estrange, known as the Australian Blondin, was an Australian successful funambulist and accident prone aeronautical balloonist. Modelling himself on the famous French wire-walker Charles Blondin, L'Estrange performed a number of tightrope walks in the 1870s, culminating in three walks across Sydney's Middle Harbour in 1877. He remains the only tightrope performer ever to have walked across a part of Sydney Harbour. L'Estrange was an early balloonist, and attempted a series of flights in the early 1880s – one being successful, one ending in Australia's first emergency parachute descent, and the last culminating in a massive fireball causing property damage, personal injury and a human stampede. He tried to return to his original career of tightrope walking but, with new forms of entertainment, humiliating falls and other Blondin imitators, he found success elusive. Public benefits were held in his honour to recoup financial losses and he dabbled in setting up amusement rides but ultimately he faded from public attention and was last recorded to be living in Fitzroy, Victoria in 1894.
Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda is a Discovery Channel special that aired on June 23, 2013. The special was billed as a highwire walk across "the majestic Grand Canyon". Interpretations varied as to whether the actual location – the Little Colorado River Gorge in Navajo territory outside Grand Canyon National Park's borders – was truly part of the Grand Canyon.
Lawrence "Larry" M. Donovan, born Lawrence Degnan or possibly Duignan was a newspaper typesetter who became famous for leaping from bridges, first around the northeastern United States, and later in England. Inspired by the first successful Brooklyn Bridge jump by Steve Brodie, Donovan sought fame and fortune by leaping off that bridge, the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, and Bristol's 250 foot Clifton Suspension Bridge. Slightly injured on a couple of occasions and frequently incarcerated following his attempts, he struggled to capitalise on his fame, making money only through bets and brief periods working as an emcee or exhibiting himself in novelty shows. In August 1888, disillusioned and desperately poor, he accepted a spontaneous two-pound wager to jump from London's Hungerford Bridge late at night, but was swept away and drowned.