![]() A park employee said the soap would be flushed from the water, “but not before a lot of fun was had. “Suddenly, it seemed as if every youngster wanted to take a bath,” the story reported. A 1965 Democrat and Chronicle story described one of those incidents as “a mass of soap suds.” On at least a few occasions, pranksters made a soapy spectacle of Over the Falls when detergent was dropped in the water. Over the Falls was in the middle of Seabreeze (which previously was called Dreamland Park), between the Jack Rabbit roller coaster and a “kiddieland.” The lagoon that was created to hold water for the ride forever changed the landscape in that part of the park, the book notes. Said Jeff Bailey, Seabreeze’s marketing manager, “The Over the Falls cars were built like tanks.” The boats, made of wood bolted to angle irons, were much heavier than the fiberglass version used in the modern Log Flume. The ride had a huge paddle wheel as part of the attraction. The hill was 40 feet tall, the fall quite steep, the splash that followed quite huge. Over the Falls was a bit more of a thriller than Caulfield prefers. I was one of the people put in it to test it. “They put sandbags in (the boats) at first, to make sure they were safe,” said Caulfield, now 85. He worked at the park when Over the Falls debuted and helped caulk the boats to make them water-tight. Matthew Caulfield of Irondequoit is the Seabreeze archivist and historian. “While Seabreeze’s boats made it through the channel without problems, Euclid Beach’s got stuck and had to be reworked.” “He built them a few inches narrower than the plans specified,” the book states. As the Images book notes, Long realized during construction that adjustments needed to be made to the boats. Longtime park owner George Long had purchased plans for the ride from Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland and had it assembled here. Seabreeze introduced the ride in 1958 as part of a park expansion.
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