Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel
On the 24th of October 1901, Annie Edson Taylor clambered into a custom-made barrel and had a friend set her adrift on the Niagara River. She was the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel (although she sent her cat down in the barrel first, just to be sure it was safe).
Annie Edson Taylor in Wikipedia
The Niagara River currents carried the barrel toward the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, which has since been the site for all daredevil stunting at Niagara Falls. Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after the plunge, and Annie was discovered to be alive and relatively uninjured, save for a small gash on her head. The trip itself took less than twenty minutes, but it was some time before the barrel was actually opened.
After the journey, Annie stated to the press:
“If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat… I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.”
There are some wonderful photos of her (complete with barrel and cat) at The Niagara Falls Public Library Website.
Meanwhile, on the 24th of October 2009, the following people took the plunge and submitted photographs to Saturday Scenes:
- Dudley
- Interlaken
- Spokane
- Uffington
- Bregenz
- Indiana
- Rorschach
- Givatayim
- High Wycombe
- La Cala
- Uffington
- Birmingham
- St Gallen
- Paris
- London
- Worcester
Take a moment to say hello to all of our terribly dedicated SatSceners:
- Pewari
- Korwhai
- jmorby
- raumsinn
- RAFairman
- sarahfenn
- akaSylvia
- Sithefire
- elibrody
- adhon
- ElshaHawk
- vaxanta
- NevilleFenn
- drewbenn
- pixelfreund
- sparc
Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:
1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!
So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @Satscenes!