A pleasant walk across the falls
by Maxine
On June 30, 1859, Charles Blondin, a French acrobat and aerialist whose real name was Jean Francois Gravelet walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The crowd was estimated at more than 25,000. He walked across the Falls several other times, once blindfolded, another time carrying a wheelbarrow, once carrying a man on his back and even once on stilts. Blondin was born February 28, 1824 in St. Omer, France.
Two books in our collection that may be of interest to aspiring aerialists are The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein, the true story of Phillippe Petit's tightrop walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls by Emily Arnold McCully, the second of her books on Mirette, tells the story of two European aerialists who with the help of a Polish immigrant foil the plot of a rival.
Blog Post