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Showing posts with the label Robert Odlum

Steve Brodie

Artist's rendering of Brodie's famous bridge jump. In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, connecting what were at the time the separate cities of New York, New York and Brooklyn, New York.  Naturally, it didn’t take long before people started to think it was a good idea to jump off of the bridge.  In 1885, Robert Odlum, a swimming instructor from Washington, DC, was the first to attempt the jump, and died when he hit the water.  The bridge is very high, over 100 feet in most parts of it, and when a human being hits the water while falling from that distance, it doesn’t make for a soft landing. Odlum’s ill-fated jump may have killed him, but it also made him famous.  Or, more to the point, he made the idea of jumping off the bridge popular.  In 1885, when Steve Brodie, a 24-year-old local newsboy, said he wanted to be famous, it’s said that a shopkeeper suggest that he jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.  Then he’ll be famous. Brodie liked the idea.  He started telling every