Nik Wallenda, Tightrope Daredevil, Breaks 2 World Records

By /

Nik Wallenda, Tightrope Daredevil, Breaks 2 World Records

By

Nik Wallenda, Tightrope Daredevil, Breaks 2 World Records
Image credit: Alex Goykhman (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-4.0] via Wikimedia Commons
Daredevil Nik Wallenda completed two record-breaking tightrope walks on live television on Sunday night.

Wallenda, a seventh-generation performer, first walked across the Chicago River on a rope strung between the Marina City west tower and the Leo Burnett Building in Chicago. Starting at a height of 588 feet, Wallenda strode upward at a 19-degree angle, rising 83 feet and setting the record for the steepest tightrope walk.

Wallenda said after the walk that he had been planning to take a selfie halfway across, and even showed off his phone which was on a retractable cord in case he dropped it. But he thought better of it once out on the rope and settled for a post-walk selfie with NBC’s Natalie Morales, one of the hosts of the Discovery special.

Wallenda’s second walk was from the Marina City west tower to the east one at a height of 543 feet, but with a catch: he was blindfolded. That set the record for highest blindfoldeded walk.

Read more

Scroll to Top