Flying Wallendas traverse Times Square in dramatic high wire stunt
The moment is captured when the death-defying Flying Wallendas performed another incredible stunt by traversing two skyscrapers from 25 stories above the pavement in Times Square on June 24.
Nik Wallenda is a seventh-generation acrobat, but this time, he said he was nervous, according to reports. His sister, Lijana Wallenda, joined him Sunday night for the first time since her near-fatal accident in 2017, when she broke nearly every bone in her face.
The siblings walked from opposite ends of the 1,300-foot wire suspended between the towers, crossing each other in the middle, where Lijana Wallenda sat on the wire and let her brother step over her. Both then continued to the opposite side.
The Wallenda family has been a star tightrope-walking troupe for generations, tracing their roots to 1780 in Austria-Hungary, when their ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers, and trapeze artists. They never use nets in live shows or in rehearsals, according to reports.
In 1978, 73-year-old Karl Wallenda fell to his death from a high wire strung between two buildings in Puerto Rico, according to reports.
Nik Wallenda's high-wire walks above Niagara Falls, the Chicago skyline, and the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park were broadcast on national television, according to reports.