Tightrope walk across Niagara Falls

Tightrope walk across Niagara Falls   

It may not have been the most appropriate choice of phrase. But when Nik Wallenda was told he was to be allowed to attempt a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls, he said: ‘I’m thrilled to death.’

If the 33-year-old daredevil survives his 1,800ft-long walk on a two-inch thick rope over the famous site, he will become the first to ever achieve the feat. The stunt will take up to 40 minutes through mist and spray, 220ft above the bottom of the gorge.

Mr Wallenda, who lives with his wife Erendira and their three children, has been tightrope-walking since he was two. In 2008 he walked and then cycled across a high-wire suspended from skyscrapers in Newark, New Jersey. The feat won him a place in the Guinness Book Of Records for the longest and highest bicycle ride on a high-wire. He currently holds six Guinness World Records.

Nerves of steel: Nik Wallenda will
be the first to tightrope walk over
the falls for a century.


Don't look down: This will be the first time anyone has tried to walk
over the falls themselves rather than downstream in the gorge.


Delight: Daredevil Nik Wallenda has finally been granted permission
to attempt to tightrope walk across the Niagara Falls.


Feat: Maria Spelterini walks across a suspension bridge on a tightrope


Very high wire: Wallenda tightropes 12 stories above a street in Newark
with no safety net in 2008 before riding a bicycle on the way back.


French acrobat and tightrope walker
Charles Blondin was the first ever person
to cross a section of Niagara Falls on
a 1000 foot long tightrope in 1859