World renown tightrope walker Nik Wallenda will attempt to walk a high-wire over Niagara Falls, making him the first person to do so in more than one-hundred years. He stated during a Wednesday press conference:
“This has been a dream for so long, since I was 6 years old.”
The cross is scheduled to take place 200 feet above the bottom of the gorge. A 2-inch cable will be attached to a massive crane on each side of the falls, which is roughly 1,800 feet across. It’s expected to take 30 to 40 minutes to cross the gap. Wallenda was quoted by CNN on Thursday having said :
“There’s something iconic about Niagara Falls. There is a history here.”
Niagara Falls Tourism indicates that the first tightrope walker to complete the feat was Jean Francois Gravelet, better known as “The Great Blondin,” in 1859.
James Hardy crossed the gorge on a high-wire in 1896. He was the last to complete the feat, as Niagara Falls Park banned tightrope walking at the park.
Wallenda has indicated that he will be the first to cross directly over the spectacular waterfall. He was quoted having said:
“The other people all crossed farther down.”
33-year-old daredevil, Nike Wallenda, lobbied politicians in the United States and Canada in order to obtain approval for the death-defying stunt. In regards to his lobbying, he stated:
“I cant tell you the amount of times I was told, ‘no,’ ‘impossible.’ I just kept on fighting.”
The Niagara Falls tightrope walk is scheduled for June. Nik will practice in Niagara Falls on May 12th through the 22nd. His practice wire is identical in size and length to the one he will cross later in the year.
Wallenda is a 7th-generation performer from in The Flying Wallendas , a renowned circus family which has been executing impressive circus acrobatics since the 1700s.
After completing the 100-foot-high tightrope walk in Puerto Rico that killed his great-grandfather in 1978, Nik was quoted having said:
“My great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, was my biggest hero in life, my biggest inspiration behind everything I do.”
The self-proclaimed king of the high wire has broken a number of world records and currently holds the Guinness Record for crossing the highest and longest high-wire on a bicycle.
Do you think Nik Wallenda will become the first person, in over 100-years, to walk the Niagara Falls tightrope ?
