http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...-1226397404079
IT'S been done blind-folded, walking backwards and even carrying a washing machine. But today Nik Wallenda became the first person ever to tightrope walk directly over the top of Niagara Falls.
While past tightrope crossings have taken place across the Niagara Gorge, Wallenda today walked from the US side of the Falls to the Canadian side contending with the mist, wind and spray generated by the mighty Falls directly below him.
As he neared the Canadian side, the 105,000-strong crowd erupted. Metres from the end Wallenda stopped, knelt on one knee and blew a kiss into the crowd, ever the showman. He answered the deafening cheers of the crowd with a fist punch to the air and a grin from ear-to-ear.
“I feel like I’m on cloud nine right now,” the 33-year-old, seventh-generation aerialist told the crowd after stepping off the cable. “The impossible is not quite impossible if you put your mind to it. It was a very unique, a weird sensation but I was very focused.”
Niagara falls tightrope
Famed tightrope walker Nik Wallenda became the first person to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls in more than a century.
Although Wallenda has a permit to walk across the Grand Canyon, he told the waiting crowd he has his sights on Australia.
“I’d love to come to Australia,” he said. “I’d love to walk about the Sydney Opera House.”
The Niagara Falls walk has been more than two years in the making as Wallenda fought for permission with both US and Canadian authorities to perform his stunt, a dream he has held since he first saw the Falls at the age of six.
Earlier this year, Wallenda got the green light and the “no stunts policy” which has been in place since 1896, was lifted for this one-off event.
Wallenda took just 23 minutes to walk across the eight-tonne, five-centimetre thick steel cable holding a 12-metre long pole weighing 16kgs.
Niagara
Nik Wallenda crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
He wore special elskin-soled shoes made by his mother. A crowd of 4000 farewelled Wallenda from Goat Island on the US side of the Falls and he was greeted by 105,000 at Table Rock on the Canadian side, including his mother Delilah, wife, Erendira and children, Yanni, 14, Amadaos, 11 and Evita, nine.
People had been arriving to stake out prime viewing spots more than 12 hours earlier. Bert Dandy, who lives just two blocks from the Falls, packed his van with lawn chairs, ice-filled eskies, blankets, umbrellas and cardboard signs and claimed a prime parking spot the night before the event.
This morning he walked to the Falls with his wife and 13-year-old daughter, unpacked the van and found a front-row spot to watch the historic event. “I think I have the best spot,” the Niagara Falls local said, “I can see the start of the tightrope and the end of it uninterrupted. People have been offering me $20 for my seat!”
His signs read “You can do it Nik” and “Welcome Nik to Niagara Falls” Not far away Mary Sansone and her friend Ron Snyder travelled the 20-minutes from their homes in Buffalo, New York to the Rainbow Bridge and crossed over to the Canadian side on foot.
“I just had to be here, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, it probably will never happen again, at least not in my lifetime,” Mary said.
dont look at me to follow his footsteps!
