Nothing seems beyond reach for this daredevil.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Daredevil Nik Wallenda, 36, walked on top of the Orlando Eye on Wednesday, a structure which at 400 feet tall reaches higher than the Statue of Liberty.
A crowd watched as he hopped into a capsule, rode to the top, climbed out, and walked onto a steel beam about 6 inches wide, reported USA Today.
“It’s a little windy,” Wallenda told NBC’s Today show, which broadcast the event. He said the structure was “really wet” as he began his 4 minute walk.
At one point he even stopped to wave to the crowd located hundreds of feet below, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re inspiring people to do greater things, to step out of their comfort zones,” Wallenda said afterward. “What an amazing feeling it was up there.”
Wallenda’s stunt kicked off the grand opening of the Orlando Eye attraction, which will open to the public May 4.
Wednesday’s feat came after another extraordinary display in November during which Wallenda made two Chicago skyscraper crossings on high wires. Other previous tightrope walks took him to the brink of Niagara Falls in 2012 and across a Grand Canyon-area gorge in 2013, according to the AP.
Wallenda is the married father of three children and said doesn’t take his events lightly. He told AP that he prays, thinks about death, and practices rigorously while calculating risks. He’s intimately familiar with the risks courted during every one of his stunts — Nik Wallenda is the great-grandson of Karl Wallenda, who fell to his death during a tightrope stunt in Puerto Rico at 73.
The master of heights’ next planned feat will be in August, when he is scheduled to stride across a tightrope at least 10 stories above the Milwaukee Mile racetrack on the grounds of the Milwaukee State Fair. The walk will be the longest of his career to date.