Wirewalker Wallenda to attempt Niagara crossing Friday night
Nik Wallenda can’t visit a new place without envisioning a wire strung high above his head: Linking buildings, landmarks, nations. Even as a six-year-old at Niagara Falls with his parents, he pictured walking a tightrope over the raging, whitewater maw.
Now 33, he’s ready to live out that childhood fantasy when he attempts Friday to become the first person to walk a tightrope directly over the brink of Niagara Falls.
“It’s just natural,” Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas, explained. “When I drive into a city, I’m always thinking, ‘It would be cool to do a walk there.’ It’s just the way I think and always have.”
The daredevil is youthful and athletic, solidly built from gym workouts and a lifetime of training. But it’s the mental element, trusting in his skill and tuning out the potential danger, that can mean the difference between success and failure.
Since first stepping on a wire when he was two, Wallenda, who lives in Sarasota, Fla., has earned six Guinness records. His family has been performing for audiences at circus-style shows for more than 200 years.
The Niagara Falls walk set for Friday night, above a nearly 200-foot (60.96-metre) drop and through potentially high winds and visionobscuring mist, will be unlike anything he’s ever done. Because it’s over water, the two-inch wire won’t have the usual stabilizer cables to keep it from swinging. Pendulum anchors are designed to keep it from twisting under his elk skin-soled shoes on the 1,800-foot (548.64-metre) walk from the U.S. to Canada.
“Life,” he says, quoting his greatgrandfather, “is on the wire. Everything else is just waiting.”