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Nik Wallenda completes two tightrope walks between Chicago skyscrapers without safety net

Video: The 35-year-old daredevil completed one of the walks blindfolded

Kiran Moodley
Monday 03 November 2014 09:48 GMT
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Daredevil Nik Wallenda walks a tightrope between buildings on November 2, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois.
Daredevil Nik Wallenda walks a tightrope between buildings on November 2, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. (David Banks | Getty Images)

Daredevil Nik Wallenda broke two world records on Sunday after completing two tightrope walks between Chicago skyscrapers without a safety net or a harness.

He also completed one of the walks blindfolded.

Thousands watched as the 35-year-old walked once between the Marina City west tower to the top of a building on the other side of a river, and then between the two 587ft-high, 65-story Marina City towers in Chicago.

The whole event was broadcast almost-live on the Discovery Channel so that producers could cut away if Wallenda fell during the stunt.

Journalists covering the event had to sign waivers relinquishing their right to claim emotional distress if they witnessed a catastrophe.

Asked how it felt during the blindfolded walk, Wallenda said, "I think you probably saw me shaking life a leaf. That wire was shaking underneath me and you know I just wanted to make it to the other side, I wasn't going to think twice, I was just getting on the wire, I’m going."

Wallenda walked over the brink of Niagra Falls in 2012 and across the Little Colorado River Gorge last year. Both televised events were watched by roughly 13 million people.

Wallenda is the great-grandson of Karl Wallenda who founded The Flying Wallendas, a daredevil circus act.

Karl Wallenda died in 1978 at the age of 73 during an attempted tightrope walk in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nik Wallenda was born a year later.

Additional reporting by AP.

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