The first spectators arrived early in the morning. By late afternoon, the cliffs were packed with people. They came on steamships from Toronto, on overcrowded trains from Buffalo, and in horse-drawn carriages from every direction.
They all came to see the Great Blondin
When the Great Blondin announced that he was going to walk from America to Canada across the Niagara River on a rope more than eleven hundred feet long and just three inches wide, hanging one hundred and sixty feet above the raging waters, people came from everywhere. Some people came to watch him cross. Some people came to watch him fall. Some people thought he wouldn't show up at all.
But he did show up. And he did walk across the river. And then he did something amazing--he did it again. And again. And again.
Matt Tavares's gorgeous and riveting account of one of the daredevils of Niagara Falls is sure to be as enthralling to readers as the original feat must have been to those spectators on the cliffs more than 150 years ago.
