Wallendas Walk tightrope Above Times Square
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
UPDATE - They made it.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1142973081834553344
NEW YORK — Two siblings from the famed Flying Wallendas (vah-LEN’-dahs) circus family have begun their high wire journey between two skyscrapers 25 stories above Times Square.
Nik Wallenda is a seventh-generation acrobat, but this time, he’s nervous. His sister, Lijana (lee-YAH’-nah) Wallenda, is joining him Sunday night for the first time since her near-fatal accident in 2017, when she broke nearly every bone in her face.
Their latest daredevil stunt is being streamed live on ABC.
The siblings are walking from opposite ends of the 1,300-foot wire (396-meter) suspended between the towers, crossing each other in the middle.
They’re wearing tethered safety harnesses required by the city in case they fall.
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Sad to say, the only suspense in these things is if they will fall.
They had on harnesses though which are required by NY state law, so presumably even a slip off the wire would not have been fatal.
I counted the mention of thank you Jesus about a dozen times and the female was singing to christian music a good part of the time.
It's all a little surreal , especially with the giant video advertisements of Times Square backgrounding the tightrope walkers as they made their way above the crowd, which was estimated at 200,000.
Watched him walk across Niagara Falls, that was nerve wracking even with a harness on.
It was mentioned that their balancing poles weighed 38 pounds. What wasnt mentioned, although you could see it, was that the poles were secured by a harness around their necks , so they couldnt have dropped the pole even if they wanted to.
Although these things are obviously inherently dangerous, there is also a science to it. The balancing pole is so wide it makes it hard for them to tip one way or the other off center.
As crowded as the sidewalks are, I bet they make better time than the people on the ground.
It took them roughly a half an hour to go a quarter of a mile, so they were going 1/2 mph. Normal walking speed is something like 3 miles an hour.