Nik Wallenda Hopes To Walk Between Chrysler And Empire State Buildings After Grand Canyon Tightrope Walk
It hasn’t even been 24 hours since Nik Wallenda completed an astonishing, untethered tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon, but the “King of the Wire” is already planning his next move and he reportedly plans to take on the Big Apple. According to reports, for his next stunt Wallenda said he wants to walk between the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.
Taking a cue from Philippe Petit’s book, the potential stunt would span roughly nine city blocks, the NY Post reported. In 1974, Petit, now 63, broke into the Twin Towers and tightrope walked between them, approximately 1,368 feet above the ground. Although Petit was initially arrested and charged with 14 misdemeanors, including criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, the charges against him were later dropped.
Wallenda, better known as the “King of the Wire,” hasn’t specified whether or not he’s gotten permission to complete the stunt. However, just hours after completing his tightrope walk over the canyon in Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park Wallenda tweeted that he was heading to New York.
In his history-making tightrope walk Sunday night, Wallenda traversed 1,200 feet of two-inch-thick wire cables at a height of 1,500 feet, without a harness or a net. He completed the walk in 22 minutes, stopping to crouch several times due to sudden gusts of wind.
Despite the danger of his job, Wallenda says that he takes plenty of precautions. “It’s not as though I get on that wire, and it’s whatever happens, happens,” he said. “I’ve actually trained my whole life that if something happens I grab that wire right away.”
Wallenda said that, unlike his great-grandfather, Karl, who fell to his death during a stunt in 1978, he has also taken added safety measures by practicing hanging from the wire for intervals of 15 to 20 minutes, which could give crews sufficient time to rescue him should something go wrong.
“It’s not like I just grab with my hands like people visualize. I wrap my legs round it, my hands round it, I hug that wire like a bear hug until help comes. I’ve got rescue teams that would be with me within a minute,” Wallenda said.
If Wallenda is granted permission to walk between the two Manhattan skyscrapers, it would not be quite as high as his Grand Canyon feat, but would be more than triple the length.
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