1824-1897

A picture book biography of Jean-Francois Gravelet, known as The Great Blondin, who walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Describes a French acrobat's seemingly suicidal stunts on a tightrope over Niagara Falls.

When the Great Blondin announced that he was going to walk from America to Canada across the Niagara River on a rope more than eleven hundred feet long and just three inches wide, hanging one hundred and sixty feet above the raging waters, people came from everywhere. Some people came to watch him cross. Some people came to watch him fall. Some people thought he wouldn't show up at all. But he did show up. And he did walk across the river. And then he did something amazing - he did it again. And again. And again.

Describes the daring feats of adventurers Blondin, Harry Houdini, Annie Oakley, Harry Rieseberg, and Evel Knievel.