Daredevil aerialist Nik Wallenda traverses the Inner Harbor. (VoB Photos & Video/Bill Hughes)
GREAT-GRANDSON OF LEGENDARY DAREDEVIL
WALKS TIGHTWIRE AT BALTO.’S HARBORPLACE
Déjà vu ‘all over again’: a 2nd Wallenda skywalk
It was déjà vu all over again as the 33-year-old great-grandson of “The Flying Wallendas” founder who performed an aerial skywalk across Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 1973 reprised his great-grandfather’s stunt to the delight of a large crowd that filled downtown’s Harborplace Wednesday afternoon.
Four decades ago Karl Wallenda traversed the Inner Harbor to kick off the fourth annual Baltimore City Fair. On Wednesday, 21st century daredevil Nik Wallenda did it to hype the planned June 1 opening of the 32nd Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium. His tightwire extended from 60 to 90 feet in the air, extending out from the Odditorium.
The younger Wallenda only slipped once, causing the overflow crowd to catch its collective breath. But he regained his balance easily, causing many onlookers to wonder if tripping wasn’t simply part of the act.
His great-grandfather wasn’t so lucky. On a breezy day in 1978, Karl Wallenda was knocked off a high-wire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, by a gust of wind and fell to his death at age 73.
In June his descendant is scheduled to walk a tightwire across the front of Niagara Falls.
“My heart jumped into my throat,” Nik Wallenda said later of the slip, but “I made it.”
Photojournalist Bill Hughes was there and recorded these images for Voice of Baltimore:
WATCH NIK WALLENDA’S SKYWALK ON BILL HUGHES’ VIDEO (click here)
Then watch him slip on Britain’s Independent Television Network (ITN) News (click here)
— VoB Staff report
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
Great-grandson of legendary aerialist Karl Wallenda traverses Baltimore Inner Harbor Wed. reprising ancestor's 1973 stunt.
