Marcus Lounsberry Jr - Long Walk on Loose Ice
tracy — Mon, 02/25/2008 - 11:21
Below is an article from the New York Times published February 5, 1898.
Long Walk on Loose Ice
Marcus Lounsberry, Jr., Performs a Hazardous Feat at Fishkill
FISHKILL LANDING, N.Y., Feb. 4.--
Marcus Lounsberry, Jr., yesterday performed a feat that was witnessed by hundreds of people on this side of the river. Lounsberry is employed by the Homer Ramsdell Transportation Company as a deck hand. The river has been frozen over between this place and Newburg only a few days. People only began to cross on it yesterday. All Winter the ferry has been running.
Just below ehere the ferry has its slip is the route of the big transfer boat William T. Hart, owned by the New England Railroad, and used for transporting cars over the river. Between the two slips is a narrow strip of ice, which is frequently broken by the two lines. The ice is shoved backward and forward as the boats move across. Yesterday Lounsberry started to walk across the ice between these two slips. He was noticed by people here and in Newburg as he was part way across. It was a sight never before witnessed here. The ice was broken up in places, but he managed to walk within fifty feet of the Newburg shore, when the ice was broken into such small pieces that he could go no further. He was taken on board the ferry-boat Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, none the worse for his hazardous walk.