who flew their kites from the United States side of the gorge, 16-year-old Homan Walsh crossed the river by a ferry upstream and walked to the Canadian side of the bridge site to launch his kite. He almost succeeded on his first attempt; his kite flew across but crashed just short of the shore. After resting several days at a friend's house, Walsh finally got his kite across the gorge and secured its line to a tree. Charles Ellet and his team tied a heavier line to the kite string and pulled the joined lines across. They pulled successive heavier and stronger lines across until the final bridge cable— thick—was hanging across the gorge. The cable was suspended between two wooden towers tall, and attached to an iron basket. Ellet planned to use this system as a basket ferry to shuttle workers and materials across the gorge, saving time that would otherwise have been spent on land and ferry travel. Through media coverage and word-of-mouth, many people knew of Ellet's efforts and flocked to the site to watch the construction. On March 13, 1848, the system was completed, and the team planned to test it by pulling the empty basket across. They hit a snag when the basket kept getting stuck halfway and could not move ahead. Pulling back the basket, Ellet decided to assure the watching crowd that the system was workable. He stepped into the basket, and it moved towards the opposite shore. When Ellet reached the problematic spot, he spotted the issue; the basket's rollers could not pass over a portion of the cable that had been accidentally flattened during the construction. He fixed the problem and proceeded to cross to the Canadian side and back, becoming the first person to cross the gorge. Although the bridge companies had prohibited Ellet from collecting tolls, he charged each person $1.00 for the chance to "observe first hand the engineering wonder of bridging the Niagara." On some days, the basket ferry conveyed up to 125 people across the gorge. Continuing his construction, Ellet built two footbridges and joined them together to form an wide suspension bridge. He intended to use this temporary bridge as a scaffold for the construction of the permanent railway bridge. On July 29, 1848, the bridge builder inaugurated the span in his typical manner; standing in his horse-buggy like a gladiator in his chariot, Ellet