I would not do a bungee jump for a million dollars. I know that there have been few serious injuries on bungee runs but when they do occur, they tend to be fatal. Nothing could persuade me to let a stranger tie a rope to my body or ankles and expect me to jump from hundreds of feet in the air. Even watching other people do it makes me feel nauseous. They are usually young men who jump, egged on by each other and no one wants to chicken out in front of their buddies. It’s a rite of passage for the modern age. These young men living in towns and cities can’t go out and wrestle a bear or shoot a tiger, so they go travelling searching for adventure on bungee runs.

Bouncing up and down at the end of a stretch of elastic rope seems an odd thing to do. The first jump of its kind was done by four British men in the Dangerous Sports Club in 1979. They jumped off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. After that they went to America and did bungee runs off the Royal Gorge Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The sport was really catching on and they started to do paying displays from cranes and hot air balloons.

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