# What is the greatest Harry Houdini escape act?

> Water tanks, milk cans, rivers and six feet of earth: every stunt here could have killed him. Choose the escape that deserves to outlive the legend.

*By YPB Team · Published November 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-greatest-harry-houdini-escape-act*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Handcuffed Bridge Jump** — score 1000/1000
   Leapt shackled from bridges into rivers and surfaced free before stunned crowds.
2. **Murderers' Row Jail Escape** — score 814/1000
   Broke out of Washington's high-security jail block in 1906 and swapped prisoners between cells.
3. **Milk Can Escape** — score 666/1000
   Escaped from a sealed milk can filled with water, billed in 1908 as 'failure means a drowning death'.
4. **Mirror Handcuff Challenge** — score 0/1000
   Beat a supposedly unpickable set of handcuffs made for the Daily Mirror in London in 1904.
5. **Chinese Water Torture Cell** — score 0/1000
   Hung upside down in a locked tank of water, introduced in 1912 and his signature act.
6. **Buried Alive** — score 0/1000
   Clawed his way out from under six feet of earth, a stunt that nearly killed him in 1915.

Tags: historical figures, magic, houdini, escapes