Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope.
Tight wire walkers are known as funambulists.
Sometimes Roman tightrope walkers stretched cables between the tops of two neighboring hills and performed comic dances and pantomimes while crossing.
On June 30, 1859 Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet, successfully crossed Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge. He repeated the feat a number of times thereafter, always with different variations: blindfolded, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, somersaulting and backflipping or with his manager, Harry Colcord, clinging to his back.
One of Blondin's Niagara crossings involved him carrying a stove and utensils on his back, walking to the center of the cable and starting a fire. He then sat down on the wire and cooked and ate an omelette.
In 1948, the oldest tightrope walker William Ivy Baldwin celebrated his 82nd birthday by crossing a 319 ft-long high-wire suspended across Eldorado Canyon in Colorado.
On August 7, 1974 Philippe Petit performed a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.
Philippe Petit's famous high-wire performance between the Twin Towers is known as "the artistic crime of the century". After completing his stunt, Petit was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. These charges were dropped on the condition that the tightrope performer put on a free high-wire performance for children in Central Park.
German tightrope walker Karl Wallenda was killed in 1978 when a gust of wind blew him from a high wire strung 123ft up between two hotels in Puerto Rico. He was 73 at the time, and just before the stunt he'd told reporters that he never felt more alive.
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| Pixiebay |
Tight wire walkers are known as funambulists.
Sometimes Roman tightrope walkers stretched cables between the tops of two neighboring hills and performed comic dances and pantomimes while crossing.
On June 30, 1859 Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet, successfully crossed Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge. He repeated the feat a number of times thereafter, always with different variations: blindfolded, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, somersaulting and backflipping or with his manager, Harry Colcord, clinging to his back.
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| Engraving (c. 1883) of Blondin crossing Niagara with his manager on his back |
One of Blondin's Niagara crossings involved him carrying a stove and utensils on his back, walking to the center of the cable and starting a fire. He then sat down on the wire and cooked and ate an omelette.
In 1948, the oldest tightrope walker William Ivy Baldwin celebrated his 82nd birthday by crossing a 319 ft-long high-wire suspended across Eldorado Canyon in Colorado.
On August 7, 1974 Philippe Petit performed a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.
Philippe Petit's famous high-wire performance between the Twin Towers is known as "the artistic crime of the century". After completing his stunt, Petit was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. These charges were dropped on the condition that the tightrope performer put on a free high-wire performance for children in Central Park.
German tightrope walker Karl Wallenda was killed in 1978 when a gust of wind blew him from a high wire strung 123ft up between two hotels in Puerto Rico. He was 73 at the time, and just before the stunt he'd told reporters that he never felt more alive.
Freddy Nock, a Swiss stuntman known for his daring tightrope walking feats, accomplished a notable achievement on September 7, 2015. On that day, he successfully completed a tightrope crossing while riding a bicycle of a world record 485m (1,591 ft).
Nock is a professional tightrope walker and acrobat. He has set several world records, including the longest tightrope crossing blindfolded and the longest tightrope crossing across a waterfall. He is also a member of the Swiss National Circus.
The tightrope crossing was part of a stunt show that Nock was performing. The show was called "The Flying Dreams of Freddy Nock" and it was held at the Erlenbach Festival. The show also featured other aerialists and acrobats.
Estonian stuntman Jaan Roose made history on September 16, 2024, by becoming the first person to traverse the Bosphorus Strait on a slackline at such a dizzying height. The 1,074-meter-long rope, suspended 165 meters above the water, connected Asia to Europe across Istanbul's iconic July 15th Martyrs Bridge. Roose's remarkable 47-minute journey was part of the ambitious "Continental Pass" project. This unprecedented feat marked the first time anyone had crossed from one continent to another on foot at such a high altitude.
Every able-bodied resident of the tiny, largely secluded Russian village of Tsovkra can tightrope walk. Tsovkra is home to just under 400 people, but all of the village’s school children reportedly study tightrope walking, and old and young alike regularly practice in all kinds of weather. The tradition goes back more than 100 years and nobody is sure how it started.
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