So that was really a turning point, the revelation that we just needed to change our business model. I had struggled with going to college because I had so much passion for what I did, performing. We just needed to change the direction of our business and we could be successful in it. And I talked my parents into allowing me to do it, and when I got there, I realized there was an amazing opportunity. My uncle called me when I was getting ready to go away to college and asked if I wanted to be part of recreating the seven-person pyramid in Detroit, Mich. I get chills thinking about it.I started at such a young age. I'm hoping with technology - it was all filmed - that there's a way I can actually walk the wire with my great-grandfather. "He is my inspiration behind everything that I do," Wallenda told reporters on Friday. Karl Wallenda's stunt at Tallulah Falls Gorge in Georgia included two headstands on the high wire. What's next? Wallenda has said he next wants to recreate a 1,200-foot-long high-wire walk made famous by his great-grandfather. Journalists covering Sunday's event signed waivers relinquishing their right to claim emotional distress if they witness a catastrophe.Ī year before Wallenda was born, his great-grandfather fell to his death during a tightrope stunt in Puerto Rico. "The feeling I feel when I look up there is scared for his life," she said.
"I'm scared of heights," Garner said looking up at the wire. The Marina City towers have been on screens - Steve McQueen chased a fugitive around the west tower's corkscrew parking ramp in "The Hunter" - and graced the album cover of Wilco's 2002 "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."Ĭynthia Garner traveled 90 miles from Belvidere, Illinois, with her husband Johnny. Two of his previous televised tightrope walks - over the brink of Niagara Falls in 2012 and across the Little Colorado River Gorge in 2013 - drew about 13 million viewers each. Even grilling has been prohibited.Ĭhicago city officials ignored a state law requiring safety nets for aerial acts higher than 20 feet, saying the law wasn't intended for "elite" performers like him. Residents of Marina City have been asked not to use laser pointers, camera flashes or drones that could interfere. Months of preparations have meant helicopters lifting cable to the rooftops, road closures and clearances from the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. "Yes there's some wind, yes it's cool, but it's not unbearable," he said. The Discovery Channel used a 10-second delay for the broadcast, which would have allowed producers to cut away if anything went wrong.Īt around 6:40 p.m., just minutes before the anticipated start of his high-wire feat, Wallenda, who lives in Florida, said the chilly conditions in Chicago would not stall him. At a fast clip, he made the stretch in little more than a minute. The next stage of Wallenda's high-wire event he undertook blindfolded - a 94-foot walk, 543 feet from the ground, between the two Marina City towers, Chicago landmarks with Hollywood credits. "I love Chicago and Chicago definitely loves me," said Wallenda as he walked the wire, with the crowd of thousands screaming in support. The tightrope began at 588 feet from the ground and ended at 671 feet - a 19-degree incline. It took him about six and a half minutes to walk the 454 foot stretch from the Marina City west tower to the top of a building on the other side of the river.
Wearing a bright red jacket, Wallenda tested the tension of the first wire. The spectacle was telecast almost-live on the Discovery Channel so producers could cut away if Wallenda fell.
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