As Blondin repeated his feat of walking across the Niagara River on a tightrope, thousands of spectators flocked to the cliffs overlooking the river to see him.
Had the crowds not been so huge, it's possible that people would not have believed the story of Blondin. But the countless witnesses could attest that he really did walk hundreds of feet above the river.
This photograph of people watching Blondin was taken by William England, a photographer employed by the London Stereoscopic Company.
