Daredevil Makes It Across Niagara Falls on Tightrope

Daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls tonight, taking steady, measured steps for 1,800 feet across the roaring falls separating the US and Canada. Afterward, he said he accomplished the feat through "a lot of praying, that's for sure. But, you know, it's all about the concentration, the focus, and the training." ABC televised the walk and insisted Wallenda use a tether to keep him from falling.

Wallenda said he agreed because he wasn't willing to lose the chance and needed ABC's sponsorship to help offset some of the $1.3 million cost of the spectacle. After he made it to the Canadian side of the falls, Wallenda said that at one point in the middle of the stunt, he thought about his great-grandfather and the walks he had taken: "That's what this is all about, paying tribute to my ancestors, and my hero, Karl Wallenda." (More Niagara Falls stories.)