Daredevil stuntman tightrope walks into history

Daredevil stuntman tightrope walks into history: Nik Wallenda becomes first person to cross right over Niagara Falls

• Nik Wallenda is the first person to walk over the Falls at their greatest extent and took just 25 minutes to do it
• He battled high winds and spray in order to avoid 190ft fall (but he was tethered by a cable)
• Thousands gather in U.S. and Canada to watch historic record attempt

By Daily Mail Reporter
Daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls, taking steady, measured steps on Friday night for 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of the roaring falls.
Though tethered to the wire to prevent falling to nearly certain death, he still contended with wind, water and an unfamiliar wire as he walked all the way from the U.S. to Canada.
The daring acrobat set off around 10.15 to whoops and cheers from the huge crowd at the atmospheric event, and arrived on the other side of the Falls within half an hour.

Feat: Nik Wallenda walks across the Niagara Falls in an attempt to be the first man ever to complete the walk

Danger: Mr Wallenda was finely poised above the surging waterfall which has taken many casualties in the past

Relief: The daredevil punched the air when he made it to the other side after 25 minutes

Epic: Mr Wallenda described the view over the Falls, which he is the only person ever to have seen, as 'breathtaking'

Torrents: The skilled tightrope walker never broke his concentration, even when surrounded by the rush of thou sands of gallons of water

Spray: The water coming off the Falls was just one of several weather phenomena which Mr Wallenda had to contend with

Scale: From afar, the walker is barely visible against the background of the mighty Niagara Falls

Breathtaking: The spectacle enjoyed by Mr Wallenda during his unique experience is unlike that granted to anyone else

Setting out: Mr Wallenda pictured just a couple of minutes after starting his walk, when he was still walking downhill into the 'valley' of the rope
Afterwards, 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. Other daredevils have wire-walked over the Niagara River but farther downstream and not since 1896.

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'This is what dreams are made of, people,' Mr Wallenda said shortly after he began walking the wire.
He took steady, measured steps amid the rushing mist over the falls as an estimated crowd of 125,000 people on the Canadian side and 4,000 on the American side watched. Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud.
After he made it to the Canadian side of the falls, Mr Wallenda said that at one point in the midd le of the stunt, 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.'

Scenic: Those who made the journey to watch Mr Wallenda were awarded with a once-in-a-lifetime view

Nearly there: Mr Wallenda became visibly more cheerful, though tired, when he was in sight of his Canadian destination

Home stretch: Mr Wallenda showboats for the crowd as he reaches the final few yards of his amazing walk

Coming in: The acrobat was delighted to find an eager crowd waiting for him when he arrived in Canada

Departure: Crowds in New York state watch Mr Wallenda start his quest to cross the Falls, unsure if he would make it all the way

Packed: There was barely enough space for all those who wanted to watch the feat to do so
A festive crowd started to gather on both sides of the border on Friday afternoon, spreading blankets and setting up folding chairs under picture-perfect blue skies and summer-like temperatures.
'We're here on a lark. We're looking for an adventure,' said Carole Halls, who with her husband pulled their nine- and 11 -year-old kids out of school early to stake out space on a grassy slope across from where Mr Wallenda finished his walk on the Canadian side.
Ms Halls, of Oakville, Ontario, was all in favor of the tether, Mr Wallenda's one safeguard, designed to keep him out of the water if he falls.
'I think we have enough gore on TV,' she said.

Route: This graphic shows how Mr Wallenda plans to make his way from the U.S. side of the Falls to the Canadian side

Waiting for him: The tightrope across Niagara Falls pictured ahead of Nik Wallenda's attempt to walk across it on Friday night

Daredevil: Mr Wallenda's feat will be unprecedented if he makes it all the way across the iconic waterfall

Crowd: Spectators assemble on the Can adian border to watch Mr Wallenda make his attempt

The first to cross the gorge: French acrobat and tightrope walker Charles Blondin was the first ever person to cross a section of Niagara Falls on a 1,000 foot long tightrope in 1859, but chose a calmer spot downstream
THE TIGHTROPE WALK IN NUMBERS
Length of wire: 1,800 feet
Weight: 7 tons
Diameter: 2 inches
Material: Ste el
How it's installed: Helicopter flew lighter tension wire across Niagara Gorge. That acts as guide for cable to be pulled by machines across the gorge.
How it's secured: Bolts are sunk deep into bedrock, several hundred yards back from each shore.
Estimated time for walk: 30-40 minutes
Wallenda footwear: Elkskin-soled shoes custom-made by his mother.
Balance pole: 30 feet long; 40 pounds
Estimated attendance: 125,000 in Canada; 4,000 on U.S. side
Direction: From the United States to Canada
Weather forecast for Friday night: Temperatures in the low 60s with winds out of the east at 10 mph or less
Height of Horseshoe Falls: 170 feet
Height of cable above brink: 20 feet
Volume of water: 600,000 gallons per second
A C-shaped clamp trailed behind him on the walk, designed to allow free passage over the pendulum anchors. If he had slipped, he would dangle by his waist about eight feet below the wire to wait for rescue.
ABC, which televised the walk, insisted on it. Mr Wallenda said he only agreed because he was not willing to lose the chance and needed ABC's sponsorship to help offset some of the $1.3million cost of the spectacle.
Conditions were good leading up to the nationally televised stunt scheduled for Friday night. When he left terra firma about 10.15pm, the temperature was in the low 60s with winds under 10mph from the east, roughly at his back.
'I think it's a crazy idea,' said Maurice Wang, 59, he drove from Toronto to watch the walk from the Canadian shore. 'Someone has to be really committed. Yo u can't just say, "Oh, I want to try it." He's got my respect for that.'
On the U.S. side of the falls, cars lined the road into Goat Island as people jockeyed for good spots to watch Mr Wallenda's 1,800-foot walk on a two-inch wire through the mist rising from the falls.
For the 33-year-old father of three, the Niagara Falls walk was unlike anything he has ever done.
Because it was over water, the two-inch wire did not have the usual stabiliser 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 1780 Austria-Hungary, when ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers a nd trapeze artists.
In 1928, the family gave its inaugural performance at Madison Square Garden and earned a 15-minute standing ovation from an astounded audience, who marveled at them performing without a safety net.
And 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.
About a dozen other tightrope artists have crossed the Niagara Gorge downstream, dating to Jean Francois Gravelet, aka The Great Blondin, in 1859. But no one has walked directly over the falls and authorities have not allowed any tightrope acts in the area since 1896.
It took Mr Wallenda two years to persuade U.S. 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 U.S. side of the falls.
FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS: THE DAREDEVIL FEATS OF NIK WALLENDA'S ACROBAT ANCESTORS

• 
  The Wallendas trace their fearless roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists.
• John Ringling of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recruited the Wallendas after seeing them perform in Cuba. In 1928, the family gave its inaugural performance at Madison Square Garden earned a 15-minute standing ovation from an astounded audience, who marveled at them performing without a safety net.
• The signature performance of the group that came to be known in the 1940s as 'The Flying Wallendas' was the seven-person chair pyramid: Two pairs of performers walk the wire, each supporting another aerialist on a pole. Those two aerialists, in turn, carry a pole upon which the seventh member of the troupe balances in a chair.
• The chair pyramid went terribly wrong in 1962 when a misstep at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit sent two men to their deaths and paralyzed a third performer.
• In 1944, the Wallendas were performing at a circus in Hartford, Connecticut when a fire broke out. All the Wallendas slid down ropes to safety but 168 people died.
• The following year, Rietta Wallenda, sister-in-law of family patriarch Karl Wallenda, fell to her death in Omaha.
• Family patriarch and Nik's great-grandfather Karl Wallenda became a featured performer, doing 'sky walks' between buildings and across stadiums including Busch, Veterans, JFK, Three Rivers and the Astrodome.
• Karl Wallenda successfully crossed Tallulah Gorge on a tightrope on July 18, 1970.
• In 1978, Karl Wallenda fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• Angel Wallenda, who married into the family at age 17, performed with an artificial limb on the high-wire in 1990 after being stricken with cancer and having her right leg amputated below the knee. She died at age 28 in 1996.
• Since first stepping on a wire when he was 2, Nik Wallenda has earned six Guinness records, the latest in October 2008. That's when, 20 stories over the streets of Newark, N.J., he traveled the longest distance and the greatest height by bicycle on a wire, riding 150 feet.
• In 2011, Nik and his mother Delilah honored his late great-grandfather by walking Karl's last route at the same time, a feat that included Nik stepping over his mother in the middle of the wire.
• Fourteen family members perform today in various troupes.