Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a…
June 1859 CE
Born on February 28, 1824 in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France, his birth name was Jean-François Gravelet, though he is known by many other names and nicknames: Charles Blondin Jean-François Blondin Chevalier Blondin, and The Great Blondin.
At the age of five, he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and, after six months of training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "The Boy Wonder".
His superior skill and grace, as well as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular favorite.
He first married Marie Blancherie on August 6, 1846, legitimizing their son Aime Leopold, after which they had two more children.
It is not known what happened to his French family after he went to the United States in 1855.
He had been encouraged by William Niblo to perform with the Ravel troupe in New York City and was subsequently part proprietor of a circus.
He especially owes his celebrity and fortune to his idea to cross the Niagara Gorge (on the Canada–US border) on a tightrope, eleven hundred feet (three hundred and forty meters) long, 3.25 inches (8.3 centimeters) in diameter and one hundred and sixty feet (forty-nine meters) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge.
This he does on June 30, 1859, and will do so a number of times hereafter, often with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, sitting down midway while he cooks and eats an omelette, or standing on a chair with only one of its legs balanced on the rope.
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