Tightrope walker crosses Niagara Falls

No wonder high-wire artist Nik Wallenda was on cloud nine.

His careful steps merged into a giant leap into the history books as he became the first person ever to walk across Niagara Falls on the tightrope.

Wallenda walked across the roaring waters of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls at 1,800ft, watched by an estimated 112,000 people.

Wallenda battled winds and thunderous spray to make history, as the first person to walk across the falls on a high wire. Others have crossed the water on tightropes, but over the gorge downstream and not for more than 100 years.

“Just staring at the falls from here is breathtaking,” he told ABC television which broadcast the stunt live as he stared down into the waters below.

“To be directly in the middle, directly above the falls... it takes your breath away. It’s just unreal.

“I’m so blessed to be in the position I am, to be the first person to be right here and to be the first person in the world who will ever be right here.”

Wallenda was amazingly calm as he proceeded, step by careful step, along the steel cable.

“There was no way to focus on the movement of the cable. If I looked down, there was water moving everywhere. And if I looked up, there was heavy mist blowing in front of my face. So it was a very unique, a weird sensation,” he said.

Wallenda started his journey on the American side of the falls and finished less than half an hour and 500m later on the Canadian side, where his passport was checked by border officials.

Wallenda has been walking wires since he was a child and had dreamed of this stunt since he was six years old. He is a seventh- generation member of the American circus family, the Flying Wallendas.

His act was dedicated to his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda who died during a stunt in Puerto Rico.