Of particular interest to fans of Batman, and New Yorkers.

From The Annotated Mother Goose by William S. Baring-Gould & Ceil Baring-Gould
pp.53-54

Rhyme #41, "Three Wise Men of Gotham"

Footnote:
"Rather like saying 'A sophisticated young matron of Podunk'. For five hundred years, Gotham, a village near Nottingham, has been considered a town of fools. Its reputation perhaps started when King John (1340-1399) expressed his intention to pass thru the town. In those days, any road over which the king passed was forever after a public road, and the villagers (like many suburbanites today) disliked the idea of their main street becoming a public highway. To convince the king's outriders that everyone in Gotham was mad, and that the king should therefore take a different route, the villagers one and all played the fool. Some tried to drown an eel in a pond; others dragged carts to the roof of a barn 'to shade it from the sun'; still others tried to trap a cuckoo (and so have perpetual summer) by building a hedge around it - hence our slang word 'cuckoo' for crazy.

The 'foles of gotyam' are mentioned in a manuscript of about 1450, and the earliest existing collection of Gothamite tales is dated 1630; it contains twenty stories and has been reprinted repeatedly. One tale has it that a man of Gotham rode to market on horseback with two bushels of wheat. So that his horse should not carry too heavy a burden, the man placed the sacks of wheat on his own back.

At the beginning of the 1800s, Washington Irving applied the name 'Gotham' to New York City, and, oddly enough, it stuck."

Question for our UK members - does the village of Gotham still have this reputation? Do people think of fools and madness when they see or hear "Gotham"? If so, it brings a new dimension to Batman stories.

Not that I know of. In fact, I'd never heard of Gotham in Nottinghamshire until reading your post. It may be different if you live in that area, but as far as the name of the village being synonymous with fools or madness in the majority of the UK, I'm gonna say "no".

You might find this interesting as well: about the first known quarantine in Europe (in Ragusa, today's Dubrovnik in Croatia). The same historian, Stevens Crawshaw, is quoted in both articles.

Decided to get out of the house yesterday and ended up going to Caldron Linn, which is about 35 miles from my house.  It's a waterfall/rapid on the Snake River where the river narrows down to 40 feet across.  Historically it was an important point for the Hunt Party which was an expedition by the Pacific Fur Company to attempt to find a viable overland route between St. Louis and the mouth of the Columbia River.  The party had taken to canoes and were forced back onto land at Caldron Linn.  Given that both Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls were a tad farther downriver they'd have been in deep trouble in bit.  The Snake simply is not navigable for any significant length.  

I was almost seven and lived about 40 miles away when the "jump" happened.  It was by far the biggest thing to happen in this part of Idaho for a long time before or after.  It was definitely the talk of the schoolyard for a while.   

I'm a little surprised at the video by the Smithsonian though.  I can forgive the mispronunciation of the Perrine Bridge.  But the description of the site as being "downstream of the Grand Canyon" which is just geographically ludicrous.  

You're right.  It does say downstream of Hell's Canyon.  They had been talking about the Grand Canyon, but then did say Hell's afterward.  

That said, the Snake River Canyon is upstream of Hell's Canyon.  The Snake flows from its headwaters in Wyoming and eastern Idaho through the Snake River Canyon and then later into Hell's Canyon.  

I remember my Dad being firmly convinced that Knievel did it on purpose or at least that he knew there was no way that his "sky cycle" would make it across.  In retrospect it seems fairly unlikely he would have planned to fail the way he did, because there was a very good chance of him drowning if he landed in the river.  It is my understanding that his investors took a bath on the deal.