Niagara Suspension Bridge(1847)

• Engineers on the project were out of ideas on how to get the first line strung between the US and Canada. The 800 foot gorge under Niagara Falls could not traversed by boat (the typical method), other ideas included: shooting arrows with lines attached, rockets, cannons, etc.
• A steel worker suggested a kite contest to deliver the line.
• The bridge company accepted the contest idea, and a fifteen year-old boy by the name of Homan Walsh won the contest by landing his kite on the opposite side.
• This crowdsourced project cost the bridge company a grand total of $10.