Man first to tightrope walk Niagara Falls

Astonishing ... Nik Wallenda walks across Niagara Falls on tighrope

Last Updated: 18th June 2012

DAREDEVIL Nik Wallenda today became the first person ever to walk across the Niagara Falls on a TIGHTROPE. 

The thrill seeker took steady, measured steps as he inched his way the 1,800 feet across the iconic roaring falls that separate the US and Canada.

An exuberant Wallenda said afterwards that he had achieved his childhood dream and declared: “I feel like I’m on cloud nine right now.”

More than 100,000 people crowded the shores in both countries and millions of people watched the spectacular event on television.

Daring ... Wallenda crossing falls with balancing pole

Wallenda, 33, described wind “coming from every which way”, mist so powerful he had to blink it away to maintain his vision and a breathtaking view during the nighttime walk illuminated by spotlights that “compared to nothing”.

He continued: “There was no way to focus on the movement of the cable.

“If I looked down at the cable there was water moving everywhere.

"And if I looked up there was heavy mist blowing in front of my face. So it was a very unique, a weird sensation.”

Nearly there ... Wallenda approaches end of rope walk

He said he accomplished the feat through “a lot of praying, that’s for sure. But, you know, it’s all about the concentration, the focus, and the training".

The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted.

NIK Wallenda walked 1800 feet across the Niagara Falls Gorge on a tightrope

Other daredevils have wire-walked over the Niagara River but farther downstream and not since 1896.

Wallenda, who wore a microphone for the broadcast, shortly after he stepped off from a platform on the American shore said: “This is what dreams are made of, people.”

Dizzy heights ... Wallenda took 30 minutes to complete his feat

Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud.

After passing the halfway mark, Wallenda expressed fatigue. “I’m strained, I’m drained,” he said. “This is so physical, not only mental but physical.”

Toward the end, as he neared the Canadian shore, Wallenda dropped to one knee and pumped his fist while the spectators cheered.

"He broke into a playful run about 15 feet from the finish line, where his wife and three children waited.

“I am so blessed,” he said later. “How blessed I am to have the life that I have.”

Thundering ... Wallenda halfway through his 1,800 ft walk

ABC televised the walk and insisted Wallenda use a tether to keep him from falling in the river.

He said he agreed because he wasn’t willing to lose the chance to perform the walk it took him well over a year to win permission from two countries to do.

Such stunts are normally illegal. ABC’s sponsorship helped offset some of the £800,000 cost of the spectacle.

Wallenda said he thought about the tether, which was secured at his waist and dragged behind him, at several points along the 30-minute walk but wasn’t hindered by it as he’d feared.

“Awesome! The whole thing is awesome,” eight-year-old William Clements of Dresden, Ontario, said after watching the walk with his family from the Canadian side, adding he wouldn’t want to walk “even over something not high”.

“He was meant to do it. The weather was perfect,” said Glenda Rutherford of Ontario. “It was amazing.”

Victory ... an ecstatic Wallenda celebrates completing his feat

For Wallenda, who has grown up on the high wire and holds six Guinness records for various stunts, the Niagara Falls walk was unlike anything he’d ever done.

Because it was over water, the two-inch wire didn’t have the usual stabilizer cables to keep it from swinging.

Pendulum anchors were designed to keep it from twisting under the elkskin-soled shoes designed by his mother.

The Wallendas trace their roots to 18th century Austria-Hungary, when ancestors travelled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists.

The clan has been touched by tragedy, notably in 1978 when patriarch Karl Wallenda, Nik’s great-grandfather, fell to his death during a stunt in Puerto Rico.

Wallenda said that at one point in the middle of the walk, he thought about his great-grandfather and the walks he had taken: “That’s what this is all about, paying tribute to my ancestors, and my hero, Karl Wallenda.”

About a dozen other tightrope artists have crossed the Niagara Gorge downstream, the first being Jean Francois Gravelet, aka The Great Blondin, in 1859.

But no one had walked directly over the falls, and authorities hadn’t allowed any tightrope acts in the area since 1896.

It took Wallenda two years to persuade US and Canadian authorities to allow it, and many civic leaders hoped to use the publicity to jumpstart the region’s struggling economy, particularly on the US side of the falls.