Chicago: Nik Wallenda successfully completed the first of two skyscraper tightrope walks in Chicago on Sunday night in a stunt televised around the world.
It took the 35-year-old daredevil, the great-grandson of Karl Wallenda of the famous Flying Wallendas circus family, about six and a half minutes to walk the wire at a 19-degree incline from the Marina City west tower to the top of a building on the other side of a river.
"I love Chicago, and Chicago definitely loves me," said Wallenda as he walked the wire, with the crowd of thousands below him screaming in support. "What an amazing roar!"
Daredevil Nik Wallenda, steps out on the wire backwards, for a live television show
before his tightrope walk uphill at a 19-degree angle, from the Marina City west tower
across the Chicago River to the top of the Leo Burnett Building in Chicago. (Photo: AP)
The next step of Wallenda's high-wire event will be a blindfolded walk between the two Marina City towers - Chicago landmarks - with no net or harness.
The Discovery Channel is using a 10-second delay for the broadcast, allowing producers to cut away if Wallenda falls. Residents of Marina City have been asked not to use laser pointers, camera flashes or drones that could interfere.
Two of Wallenda's 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. The Discovery Channel hoped to capture an elusive real-time audience in the DVR era.
Daredevil Nik Wallenda talks to the media during a press conference after his tight rope
walk in Chicago, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. (Photo: AP)
Journalists covering Sunday's event signed waivers relinquishing their right to claim emotional distress if they witness a catastrophe. A year before Wallenda was born, his great-grandfather fell to his death during a tightrope stunt in Puerto Rico. He was 73.
"Life is on the wire," Karl Wallenda once said. "Everything else is just waiting."
Watch Video: Nik Wallenda Tests the Wire, courtesy Discovery
