One Falls daredevil once made breakfast while tightrope walking over the gorge

Learn more about Niagara’s death-defying daredevils

This podcast from the Niagara Falls Daredevil Museum explores 19th‑ and early 20th‑century Niagara daredevils—like tightrope walker Charles Blondin, barrel-stunter Annie Edson Taylor, and Sam Patch—detailing their feats, dangers, and public spectacle.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Cleaning a glass bridge 4,000 feet in the air

Dangling 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon, these cleaners risk it all to scrub a glass bridge. With a custom-built trolley and nerves of steel, they tackle one of the scariest jobs in America.

Niagara’s frozen river once hosted winter carnivals

Before a 1912 collapse, winter ice bridges across the river were so thick that entrepreneurs built bars, photo studios, and entire carnival midways on the frozen surface.

Niagara Falls stopped flowing for a full day in 1848 due to ice

In March 1848, ice jams halted the Niagara River entirely for over 24 hours, allowing people to walk on the riverbed—a rare event that drew international headlines.

Before Alex Honnold completed his free solo climb of Taipei 101, 'French Spider-Man' scaled the building

Alain Robert completed his climb of the massive skyscraper in 2004, 22 years before Honnold. The crucial difference, though, was that Robert used safety ropes for his ascent. Honnold, on the other hand, completed it "free solo," meaning he climbed the building without any equipment beyond some shoes and a pouch of chalk for his hands.

Engineers shut off Niagara's American Falls for six months in 1969

In June 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Niagara River to halt flow over the American Falls. The dry riverbed allowed geologists to study erosion and remove dangerous rock buildup.

Niagara’s honeymoon tourism was influenced by Napoleon's brother

Niagara falls was once dubbed the “honeymoon capital of the world.” This tradition partially began with a visit by Napoleon's brother Jerome and his wife in 1804.

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has many tourist attractions

The Canadian side features Ripley's Believe it or Not, Louis Tussaud's Waxworks, tunnels behind the Falls and more. A short walk from the falls leads to Clifton Hill, packed with arcades, mini golf, haunted houses, and carnival-style attractions.

Da Vinci’s ingenious self-supporting bridge

Without using glue or nails, the brilliant polymath Leonardo Da Vinci was able to construct a sturdy bridge of wood logs. This video unpacks the genius civil engineering behind this concept and offers a visual demonstration of how it worked. See how Da Vinci accomplished this feat without using permanent parts, and how his bridge got even stronger as weight and force was added.

President George Washington's adventurous eating habits included having tongue toast for breakfast and cow stomach for dinner.

Dangers of a record-breaking, sleep-skipping stunt

In 1963, 17-year-old Randy Gardner decided to stay awake for as long as it took to break the current world record. He managed to stay awake for 11 days. In 2017, the then-71-year-old Gardner told NPR that his experience had come back to haunt him as insomnia. The challenge has since been removed from the Guinness Book of World Records due to its dangerous consequences.

Niagara Falls was a key Underground Railroad crossing point

In the mid-1800s, the Suspension Bridge near Niagara Falls connected the US to Canada and served as a frequent crossing location for people escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad.

Italian banker catches 3-year-old girl falling from a fifth-floor balcony

In Turin, Italy, in August of 2023, a man walking to the bakery with his girlfriend became a hero when he saw a 3-year-old girl climbing out of a fifth-floor window. This article collects social media posts around the incident and explains what...

You can take a boat ride directly into the mist of Niagara Falls

The Maid of the Mist takes passengers on a thrilling boat ride to the very base of Horseshoe Falls—surrounding them with roaring water and thick mist.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Performance artist Thierry Mandon turns solitary domestic scenes into spectacless

Suspended in the air and attached to severed buildings, artist Mandon appears engrossed in his book while lying in bed or sitting at a table. Mandon satirizes our everyday habits while attracting and amusing passersby.

There's no definitive proof that Boulanger, the supposed inventor of the restaurant, ever lived

Legend has it that Boulanger's Paris soup shop was the first modern restaurant, but historian Rebecca Spang found no definitive proof that he ever lived. She did, however, find multiple documents referencing a different 18th-century Parisian, Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau, as the "creator" of restaurants. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Niagara power helped electrify early New York City

Tesla's AC system at Niagara Falls was so successful that electricity generated there lit up Broadway theaters and powered NYC's subway system in the early 1900s.

Niagara Falls helped decide the battle between AC and DC power

In the 1890s, Niagara Falls became the proving ground for alternating current (AC) when Tesla and Westinghouse built the first large-scale AC hydroelectric plant—defeating Edison’s push for direct current (DC) in the US electrical system.

See technicians use rappelling gear to make wind turbine repairs from 35+ stories up

Although drones are used to conduct initial reviews from the ground, mechanical engineers trained in turbine maintenance face extreme risks during close inspections more than 150 meters off the ground.

Whirlpool Rapids formed in a matter of days during the last ice age

Niagara Falls' dramatic whirlpool rapids were created in a matter of weeks when the retreating Falls intersected a buried ice age riverbed—generating North America's largest standing waves.

Watch someone follow an early American recipe using 19th-century technology

Following an old cookbook, one woman makes meatballs, pastries, potatoes, and spinach over her fireplace. The springtime dinner is taken from a 1778 book titled The Art of Cookery, which remained a bestseller throughout the 1820s.

Niagara Falls consists of three different waterfalls

The famous landmark is made up of the American, Canadian, and Bridal Veil falls. Of the three, Bridal Veil is the smallest and forms the other boundary of a small slice of area known as Luna Island, where tourists can view the scene.

Nikola Tesla embraced showmanship when promoting ideas ahead of their time

He once electrified himself during a live demonstration to illustrate the safety and power of alternating current, and his presentations often featured arcing coils, glowing lights, and bold claims about a future of wireless power.

Niagara Falls flows over 400-million-year-old layered rock

The falls cut through distinct layers of ancient rock: a hard cap of Lockport Dolomite sits atop softer layers of Rochester and Queenston Shale. This structure allows the falls to maintain a steep vertical drop as erosion undercuts the caprock.

The fabulous prison escapes of Japan's Yoshie Shiratori

Between 1936 and 1947, Japan's Harry Houdini escaped from prison four times, each more daring than the next. Even as the walls grew taller and the windows smaller, Siratori found ways to free himself from captivity.

The world's first AC hydroelectric power plant incorporated Tesla's engineering

Built at Niagara Falls, New York, the plant alternating current electricity was hailed as the future of power generation. Tesla's fascination with Niagara Falls is traced to his seeing a photo of the waterfalls when he was still a child.

The man behind the dark novel abandoned on the floor of the Bastille

As tensions rose in the days before the French Revolution of 1789, Donatien Alphonse François attempted to fan the flames by shouting at passersby about false horrors happening inside the Bastille where he was imprisoned. This 39-minute podcast...

Niagara's flow is changed artificially to accommodate tourists and power generation

The natural wonder is also the site of great engineering feats, from the Welland Dam that first allowed ships to travel from the upper lakes to the St. Lawrence Seaway, to one of the first hydroelectric dams.

Watch a 1908 Wright Flyer demo with Wilbur and a passenger near Le Mans, France

One of the earliest filmed flights, this demonstration in France helped dispel doubts over the Wrights’ claims to powered, controlled flight. Such demos helped launch the pair to fame five years after their seminal flight in Kitty Hawk.

Watch the annual three-day revamp of the Q'eswachaka bridge

Rebuilt every year since the Inca empire, this bridge still is used today by locals who want to traverse the 120-foot-wide gorge that runs beneath it. This three-minute video shows just how much effort goes into its restoration.

Niagara Falls generates its own microclimate

Constant mist from the Falls produces localized weather effects, including rare ice formations that can rise over 100 feet high in winter.

Watch Anthony Bourdain's meal at El Bulli, which popularized molecular gastronomy

The 'drinks' included cocktails in the form of alcohol-infused sugarcanes, a cotton candy piña colada, and a dual-textured, temperature-changing gin fizz. Foods included a gorgonzola cheese sphere with the consistency of a chocolate egg and a dish of freeze-dried and foam tofu with the appearance and texture of tiramisu.

Watch an amateur fly a 1902 Wright glider at the Kitty Hawk dunes

Billy Vaughan recreates the test flights of the Wright gliders in the exact location the brothers conducted them. He argues an October 1902 glider flight—not the December 1903 one—was the key innovative moment, implementing three-axis control. Host Baratunde rides a glider in perfect windy conditions in this re-creation.

'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

Still reeling from the Great Depression, many Americans were looking for low-cost (or free) activities. Some travel agencies curated "mystery hikes," which offered intrepid amblers the opportunity to be set on a blind adventure.

Mark Twain once challenged a rival newspaper editor to a duel

While writing for a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada, Twain published a story about a local fundraiser, accusing the paper’s rival of rescinding their donation. The problem was that the story was untrue: It was a hoax that he had concocted while drunk. The affair led to a protracted, public back-and-forth, with Twain challenging the editor of the rival paper to a duel; likewise, two other men challenged Twain to a duel. Twain ultimately left town, but wrote about the episode later on in an essay titled “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel.”

How the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is one of America's most iconic structures and is considered to be an engineering marvel. Built in 1930's, before the advent of modern construction technology, the structure was considered impossible by contemporary standards.

Often dubbed the 'king of bank robbers,' George Leonidas Leslie stole an estimated $7M (equivalent to $200M today) and charged other criminals a $20K fee to evaluate their heist plans

Leslie studied architecture and used blueprints of safes and banks to execute meticulously planned bank heists across the Northeast between 1869 and 1878. Although Leslie was an infamous bank robber by night, he posed as a member of high society by day, providing critical intel on the institutions he'd rob and helping conceal his crimes. Months before his largest planned heist, where he planned to turn on his gang, Leslie's body mysteriously washed up along the Hudson River. His killer remains a mystery.

Historians believe the first modern restaurant was opened in 1765

A Parisian soup salesman named Boulanger is often credited with opening the first modern restaurant and was renowned for serving meat in poulette sauce.

Delmonico's was the first American fine-dining restaurant

The steakhouse opened in 1837 in Manhattan, creating what is now considered the first fine-dining restaurant in the United States, introducing gloved waiters, white tablecloths, and an à la carte menu. The establishment also claims it invented a few American staples, including eggs Benedict, which was supposedly named after two loyal customers.

The US Army Corps of Engineers once stopped water from flowing into Niagara Falls to prevent long-term erosion.

The 1904 Olympic marathon was a bizarre spectacle

When the Olympics first came to the US, the race was still a fringe event with few established rules. That led to an absurd comedy, with competitors ingesting poison, hitchhiking 11 miles of the course, and occasionally sipping brandy.

A film crew captured a 5-year-old Flannery O’Connor and her talented chicken

British Pathé, an international news program, ventured out to Georgia to film O’Connor (then known by her given name, Mary) and her chicken, whom she’d taught to walk backward. O’Connor would later joke that it was the highlight of her life.

Houdini recalls how he became 'Handcuff King'

Illusionist Harry Houdini rose to fame through his many escapes, like from the handcuffs slapped onto his wrists by Los Angeles police in 1899. In this 1907 Los Angeles Herald article, Houdini recalls some of the many times he's thwarted attempts to...

Lee Spencer, a single-leg amputee, broke the world record when he rowed solo and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean in 2019.

Fallingwater is one of the world’s most famous houses

Fallingwater, a country house set atop a waterfall, is arguably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated work. Legend has it that the initial drawings of the house were hurriedly sketched in just three hours after Wright’s client surprised him with a phone call and announced he wanted to see the plan’s progress.

Watch a YouTuber solve a Rubik's Cube while in free fall

He broke a world record, completing the task in the sky in just 23.333 seconds.

A $50 bet led to the first American coast-to-coast road trip, a journey that cost the driver $260K in today's money.

Taliesin’s first fire also involved the tragic murder of seven people

In 1914, while Frank Lloyd Wright was out working in Chicago, one of his servants at Taliesin brutally murdered his mistress, Martha “Mamah” Borthwick Cheney, her two children, and three other people in the home. The massacre left a deep impression on Wright, who spent much of his career restoring the home.