Have you ever visited a waterfall and wondered if anyone has jumped down it? I assure you people have, it is the same with Niagara Falls. Like cartoons, Annie Taylor rode a barrel down the most known and famous waterfall and survived! This barrel was custom-made, 5 feet tall, and 3 feet wide, Annie was harnessed with leather straps to keep her secure, and the inside of the barrel also had padding and cushion to help break Annie Taylor’s fall for more chance of survival. She was towed into the river of the waterfall and then cut loose to be on her own, although she was harshly knocked around like a pinball she still made it to the shore mostly unharmed. At the shore press and interviewers surround her to get photos and to ask questions about why Annie Taylor would do such a thing as go down a waterfall. Taylor wanted fame, as her husband died in the Civil War and she needed a fortune and hoped riding down Niagra Falls in a barrel would give her such a fortune. This event did give her some popularity, but only for a brief moment and she did not get the money she was looking for either. This waterfall event did inspire many others to do the same and from 1901 to 1995 there were 15 other people that went down Niagara Falls.
“I think that was pretty idiotic of her but she was pretty lucky to be able to survive dropping down a waterfall in a barrel,” Nicholas McMillan (11) said.
Annie Taylor fell down Niagara Falls in 1901. She survived and was surrounded by the press but received no reward for the achievement of the first waterfall barrel drop down Niagra Falls.
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