Over a Barrel

Annie Edson Taylor,on her 43rd birthday, October 24,1901 became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Annie had worked as a schoolteacher and after losing a child in infancy and her husband during the Civil War,worked a variety of jobs in different locations. Wanting to avoid the poorhouse,and wishing for financial security for her later years she planned her stunt. She had a barrel custom made of oak and iron and padded with a mattress. Two days before her own attempt a domestic cat was sent over to test the barrel's strength,the cat survived unharmed. On her birthday she climbed from a rowboat into the barrel with her lucky heart shaped pillow. After screwing down the lid a bicycle tire pump was used to compress air in the barrel,the hole was then plugged with a cork. The trip itself took less than 20 minutes and Taylor was alive and uninjured,other than a small gash on her head.
The feat didn't bring the financial security she had hoped for and her manager,Frank M. Russel absconded with her barrel and she spent most of her savings paying private detectives to find him.
I enjoy roller coasters and most thrill rides,but count me out on this one! For one thing I am claustrophobic so I would probably claw my way out of the barrel and be on my own going over the falls!