Tens of thousands of people gathered at the falls and millions more were believed watching on television as Wallenda crossed some 200 feet in the air on a two-inch-wide wire strung over the raging waters of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls that make up Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n
Wallenda trotted in his final steps across the wire and stepped into Canada, barely 25 minutes after he started.<\/p>\n
After he greeted his wife and family, Wallenda was approached by customs agents, who asked him for his passport, which he presented.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m not carrying anything over. I promise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the purpose of your trip sir?\u201d the agent asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo inspire people around the world,\u201d Wallenda said.<\/p>\n
Wallenda said the mist and the winds midway across the walk were the biggest challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about the concentration, the focus, and it all goes back to the training,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grinning from ear to ear because I can see I\u2019m here. I made it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Others have crossed the Niagara River itself, but never over the falls. Wallenda said that tonight\u2019s feat will be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream as well as a chance to honor his great-grandfather, legendary funambilistKarl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978.<\/p>\n
Wallenda, 33, has called his great-grandfather his \u201cbiggest inspiration\u201d and said he will be thinking of him during the stunt. The 1,500-foot walk between Goat Island in the U.S. side to Table Rock in Canada will be fraught withunforgiving natural conditions: blinding mist and drafts created by the force of the waterfalls crashing down on the Niagara River.<\/p>\n
Those obstacles notwithstanding, Wallenda told reporters Thursday that he hopes the walk will be \u201cpeaceful and relaxing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOften, I\u2019m very relaxed when I\u2019m walking on a cable like that,\u201d he said, but he added that the historic nature of the event could also mean \u201cthere\u2019ll be some tears involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparing for the walk took months. In addition to actually practicing for the walk, Wallenda had to secure permission from both U.S. and Canadian authorities. On the Canadian side, giving Wallenda the go-ahead meant granting a one-time exemption on a 128-year ban on stunts. Wallenda\u2019s team also had to devise and implement measures to steady the wire and guarantee that, should Wallenda stumble, safety equipment would keep him from plunging down into the gorge.<\/p>\n
Today, in the hours before the walk, Wallenda planned to focus his energy on friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have lot of friends that I haven\u2019t seen for a while that have all flown in to be here for this event, so I\u2019m going to spend some time with them and hang out,\u201d he said on \u201cGood Morning America\u201d today.<\/p>\n
At least one person close to Wallenda will not be at Niagara Falls to watch the event. Wallenda told \u201cGood Morning America\u201d that his grandmother couldn\u2019t be there, but that he promised her that he would call her as soon as he made it to Table Rock.<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s event is expected to bring a major boost to tourism in the Niagara Falls region, which sees 13 million visitors at the falls each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver a billion people by Monday will have known the story of Nik Wallenda over Niagara Falls,\u201d Tim Clark, of the Buffalo-Niagara Film Board, told ABC News affiliate WKBW, \u201cand I think that\u2019s just fantastic reinforcement for our tourism industry here in western New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Original source)<\/p>\n
What do you think of Nik Wallenda\u2019s story? Would love to hear your thoughts below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daredevil Nik Wallenda has become the first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a high wire. Tens of thousands of people gathered at the falls and millions more were believed watching on television as Wallenda crossed some 200 feet in the air on a two-inch-wide wire strung over the raging waters of Horseshoe Falls, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,10,11,12,13,14,24],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affiliate-marketing","category-afformations","category-american-idol","category-article-marketing","category-attraction-marketing","category-bloggers","category-blogging","category-news","tag-nik-wallenda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/584"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/karenmarrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}