Gorsline Park and Sam Patch

Gorsline Terrace Park, once part of the Gorsline Building, lets you view the falls and river gorge. Don’t miss three highlights you can see only from this spot: the eastern view of the lip of High Falls; the original wheel pit of Rochester’s early saw mill; and The Leap, a small balcony near the spot where Sam Patch took his last jump.

Sam Patch was a famous daredevil in the 1820′s, the first person to go over Niagara Falls and survive. In 1829 he came to Rochester to tackle the High Falls. He successfully made the jump twice. The first was for practice and the second was in front of what he considered too a small crowd. More than half of Rochester paid to watch as Sam took his fatal plunge on Friday the 13th of November.

Witnesses claim something must have gone wrong. His feet did not straighten out and his body slammed into the water below. Despite speculation that he was hiding, waiting for a triumphant return, this was his last jump. His body was found frozen in the ice, at the mouth of the river in Charlotte, the following spring.

To learn more about Sam, tap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Patch