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Before a walk across Niagara Falls, a balancing act

Tightrope walks across the gorge were common in the 19th century, but were banned on both the American and Canadian sides as tawdry stunts.
Nik Wallenda, a scion of the circus family, is asking officials in two nations to let him do a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls.
Nik Wallenda, a scion of the circus family, is asking officials in two nations to let him do a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls.New York Times
/ Source: The New York Times

Nik Wallenda is a seventh-generation circus performer, scion of the famed Flying Wallendas. He set the world record for farthest distance traveled by bicycle on a high wire. And now he has set his sights on a new deed of daredevilry — walking the 1,800 feet across the gorge of Niagara Falls while balancing on a two-inch-diameter steel cable.

But before he can attempt his funambulist feat, Mr. Wallenda must persuade officials in both Canada and the United States to abandon their century-old aversion to “stunting” as a distraction from the majesty of the falls. So for several days, Mr. Wallenda has been attempting his own form of tightrope diplomacy, shuttling across the falls and meeting with lawmakers and parks overseers in both countries as he pleads for support.

“This is a dream of mine that I’ve always wanted to do,” Mr. Wallenda, a 32-year-old father of three, said on Thursday, sitting on the pool deck of a hotel here and surveying the waterworks in the distance. “I get chills thinking about it.”

In the United States, a long list of local politicians, eager to help the economically depressed city of Niagara Falls, N.Y., have championed his proposal: lawmakers in Albany voted this year to give permission for Mr. Wallenda’s escapade, and that measure will soon come before Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his consideration.

“We have to keep Niagara Falls fresh,” said John Percy, who as president of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation is the top tourism official on the American side of the falls. “From a destination marketer’s standpoint, we want this to happen, because it just garners worldwide attention.”

But in Canada — where Niagara Falls, Ontario, is booming as a casino-enriched tourist metropolis that has been developed over decades — parks officials are frowning on what they see as a falls folly, citing a 19th-century crackdown on stunt acts.

“Our vision is to have people come and be inspired by the falls, by the beauty of the natural environment,” the interim chairwoman of the Niagara Parks Commission, Janice Thomson, said in an interview. “We don’t believe that stunting has any place in front of that natural splendor.”

Niagara Falls has a long history of attracting stuntmen, and stuntwomen, eager to taste the thrill, and the fame, of plunging over the cascade packed into wine barrels, rubber inner tubes or hot water tanks. Annie Taylor, a 63-year-old schoolteacher, pioneered the barrel plunge in 1901 and lived to tell about it. Other daredevils followed; not everyone fared as well.

But tightrope walking has an even longer history here. Jean François Gravelet, known as the Great Blondin, crossed the gorge on a wire in 1859 and repeated his feat as a regular attraction at the falls. On occasion, Blondin would wear a sack over his head, or push a wheelbarrow, or even carry his business manager. In one variant of his act, he donned a chef’s hat and stopped above the gorge to cook an omelet for passengers on the Maid of the Mist sightseeing boat, bobbing in the waters beneath him.

But the Niagara Parks Commission, the Canadian agency that oversees the parkland adjacent to the falls, traces its creation in 1885 to the desire of local officials to reduce the “increasingly carnival atmosphere” at the falls. Even though the mayor of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is a Wallenda supporter, the Parks Commission prohibits “stunting” at the falls, and holds that rule near and dear.

Mr. Wallenda, who wants to walk across the gorge in front of the Horseshoe Falls, met with the general manager of the Parks Commission on Thursday in a session he described as friendly and positive.

“It was just, ‘Hey, this is who I am, I’m a real person, I’m not cocky, I’m not crazy, I’m not a maniac,’ “ he said. “ ‘I’m a real person, I respect you 100 percent, I respect your country, I respect your laws, I’m going to abide by your laws, and together, I think we can accomplish something amazing.’ ”

After the meeting, the Parks Commission released a statement saying that it invited Mr. Wallenda to submit a written proposal, which would then be reviewed “to ensure it meets the best interests of the park.”

The commission, its statement said, “requested the proposal address its concern over the possibility such a feat would encourage others to try and undertake possible stunting activities.”

The disagreement reflects the diverging paths of the two cities that flank the falls.

Niagara Falls, N.Y., is a shell of a city: the stucco exteriors of low-rise motels wear the stains of neglect; paint peels on old bungalows, their porches sagging; and weeds poke through the cracks of downtown sidewalks. The falls, once a default honeymoon destination, have clearly lost some of the cultural cachet from 1953, when Marilyn Monroe starred in a thriller set here, “Niagara.”

The city, like other Rust Belt communities, has steadily decayed as factory jobs vanished. Barely 50,000 people live there today, down from 102,000 in 1960. And tourism has not been as strong as the city’s boosters wish, despite repeated efforts to promote the falls, most recently as a wedding destination for same-sex couples.

Mr. Wallenda is arguing that his tightrope walk would provide an economic stimulus for this area, with the only cost being the suspense of watching him.

“Talk to any local business owner here, far and wide — they’ll tell you, the falls need a boost,” Mr. Wallenda said. “It’s about bringing attention to this region, which helps the economy, which is what we’re all trying to do in this day and age.”

In June, New York State lawmakers approved a bill written specifically to allow the stunt, which the bill’s sponsors promised would give Niagara Falls “a much-needed shot in the arm in terms of economic development.”

The legislation would require state parks officials to grant Mr. Wallenda permission to walk across the falls, but would also require him to pick up all safety costs, and would bar him from suing New York State should he be injured or die.

On Thursday, at a Niagara Falls, N.Y., souvenir shop housing a “daredevil museum,” two visitors, Kim Walker, 50, a Pennsylvania homemaker, and Deanna Meadows, 49, who works for a lawyer in Texas, eyed some of the contraptions that had previously carried people over the falls, including a steel tank turned into a craft for two people (they lived) and a mangled Jet Ski (he did not).

They offered a fatalistic endorsement of Mr. Wallenda. “If he falls, it’s not going to ruin the falls,” Ms. Meadows said. “I mean, it’s not going to mess them up. It’s going to mess him up.”

Mark DiFrancesco, 51, who runs the souvenir shop with his brother, said it was about time for another high-wire act.

“It just gets everybody excited again,” he said. “No matter how you look at it, whether you like it or you don’t like it, it is part of the history of Niagara Falls.”

This story, “,” originally appeared in the New York Times.