Yes, hundreds of people have gone over Niagara Falls, either by accident or as intentional stunts. While most attempts and accidents result in death, there have been a handful of survivors.
In the following 125 years, thousands of people have been swept over the falls but only sixteen people have reportedly survived the feat. All instances of people having survived the trip over the falls have been over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
Captain Matthew Webb was killed in an unsuccessful attempt to swim the Niagara Whirlpool Rapids on July 24th 1883. Webb was also the first person to swim the English Channel. When he arrived in Niagara Falls NY he was warned by several people not to try this "impossible" swim.
Perhaps one of the most miraculous stories ever told took place at Niagara Falls on Saturday afternoon, July 9,1960. A man from Niagara Falls, New York took two children for a boat ride in the upper Niagara River. The boat developed motor trouble, capsized into the river and all three were thrown into the upper rapids.
On July 9th 1960, seven year old Roger Woodward and his 17 year old sister Deanne, both of Niagara Falls, New York set out on a boat ride through the upper Niagara River with family friend James Honeycutt. Honeycutt, age 40, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was a contractor at the Niagara Parks Commission hydro project.
At the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls, the Niagara River is approximately 170 feet deep - about as deep as the Falls are high! It's depth is largely due to the intense force of the water crashing down from above. Slightly further down the Niagara River, the depth sits at around 50 feet.
In 1901, 63-year-old schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and she brought her cat along for the ride. Seeking fame and fortune, Taylor designed a custom padded barrel, sealed herself inside, and plunged over the edge of the falls.
In 1969, the iconic Falls transformed from thundering cascades to a silent cliff face over the Niagara Gorge when the mighty waters stopped flowing for the first time in some 12,000 years.
The infamous Bobby Leach plunged over the Falls in a steel barrel. Bobby broke both kneecaps and his jaw during his daring event. Years later while touring in New Zealand, Bobby slipped on an orange peel and died from complications due to gangrene!
Niagara Falls has only completely frozen over once in recorded history, in March 1848.
The last person to try it in a kayak, Jessie Sharp, went over the lip in 1990 and was never seen again. Only his boat was recovered, several hundred yards downstream of the falls, and it reportedly had a dent in it from an impact with rocks.
There's still water in the Great Lakes because they rely heavily on replenishment/renewal from precipitation (rain, sleet, snow, hail) and groundwater. The brown foam below Niagara Falls is a natural result of tons of water plummeting into the depths below.
Trotter brought with him a newly constructed 3.7 m long barrel, made from two pieces of water heater tanks welded together by synthetic fibre. The barrel contained four oxygen tanks capable of providing air for one hour and twenty minutes.
In 1960, 7-year-old Roger Woodward went over Horseshoe Falls wearing only a life jacket and survived. Discover the incredible true story behind one of Niagara's greatest miracles. Here is apparently smiling after getting rescued.
There are a few signs along the river but also a good rule of thumb is that the Grand Island North bridge is the point of no return on the river. Even motorized vessels have a hard time navigating the river once you get past this point.
He spent six months in the hospital recovering from injuries he sustained during the fall, which included two broken knee caps and a fractured jaw. Leach had been a performer with the Barnum and Bailey Circus and was no stranger to stunting.
The Woman Who Went Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel (UK) / Queen of the Mist (US/CAN) This novel retells the true story of Annie Edson Taylor who, as a sixty-three-year-old debut 'stunter', went over Niagara Falls in a pickle barrel in 1901 and was the first to survive the fall.
Over the years, several other barrel–riders challenged Niagara though not all lived to tell the tale. It was the death of William “Red” Hill, Jr. in 1951 that made it illegal to stunt at Niagara Falls. Eight of Niagara's daredevils are buried in the “stunters' section” of historic Oakwood Cemetery.
During this time, two bodies were removed from under the falls, including a man who had been seen jumping over the falls, and the body of a woman, which was discovered once the falls dried.
A car that was stuck partly submerged near the brink of Niagara Falls after a daring rescue attempt last week went over the falls this weekend and cannot be seen from the shore, state parks officials said Monday.
Back in 1969, Niagara Falls ran dry for six months, and photographers captured unique perspectives of the once-in-a-lifetime event.
Lake Erie's water level will lower when/if the Niagara river erodes all the way back to to the outlet of Lake Erie, and Lake Erie will become a river, when it erodes all the way to the middle of the lake (actually the deepest part).
But no feat has attracted more visitors than a scientific survey conducted in 1969. That year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned off American Falls. The engineers wanted to find a way to remove the unseemly boulders that had piled up at its base since 1931, cutting the height of the falls in half.
The Niagara Falls Museum, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, was founded by Thomas Barnett in 1827. After a number of moves and varying fortunes it closed in 1998. The museum is known for housing the mummy of Ramesses I for 140 years before its return to Egypt in 2003.