The Walk---Philippe Petit---Twin Towers Miracle
Without Prejudice
Philippe Petit crossing between the Twin Towers 1974.
As we watched the unbelievable walk of Nik Wallenda across the Grand Canyon, 1500 feet long, on a wire 2" thick we were reminded of the other unbelievable feat of a man walking a tight rope in the air, Philippe Petit and his crossing between the Twin Towers, at the World Trade Centre also on a cable in 1974.
I watched a documentary recently on this amazing walk, my heart in my mouth, the thought of a man suspended high in the air on a foggy morning in New York. How did he do it, I wondered without any one knowing ? How did he suspend the wire without anyone being aware, crowds gathered below, along with the Police, looking up in shock and awe. If you get a chance to watch the documentary, do so, it is amazing in its planning and daring.
That image will always enthrall me, and terrify me, a man defying height, wind, fear, the press, and security to make that death defying walk suspended 1,568 or 417 m in the air. The walk 200' or 61m in length and to achieve " The Coup" as he described it, he used a cable that weighed 450 pound or 200 kilos and carried a custom made balancing pole that weighed 55 pound or 25 kg.
No one knew that he was going to attempt the crossing. It was to be secretive. Petit was also an acrobat.
Philippe Petit crossing between the Twin Towers 1974.
As we watched the unbelievable walk of Nik Wallenda across the Grand Canyon, 1500 feet long, on a wire 2" thick we were reminded of the other unbelievable feat of a man walking a tight rope in the air, Philippe Petit and his crossing between the Twin Towers, at the World Trade Centre also on a cable in 1974.
I watched a documentary recently on this amazing walk, my heart in my mouth, the thought of a man suspended high in the air on a foggy morning in New York. How did he do it, I wondered without any one knowing ? How did he suspend the wire without anyone being aware, crowds gathered below, along with the Police, looking up in shock and awe. If you get a chance to watch the documentary, do so, it is amazing in its planning and daring.
That image will always enthrall me, and terrify me, a man defying height, wind, fear, the press, and security to make that death defying walk suspended 1,568 or 417 m in the air. The walk 200' or 61m in length and to achieve " The Coup" as he described it, he used a cable that weighed 450 pound or 200 kilos and carried a custom made balancing pole that weighed 55 pound or 25 kg.
No one knew that he was going to attempt the crossing. It was to be secretive. Petit was also an acrobat.
Petit was born in Nemours, Seine-Et-Marne, France; his father, Edmond Petit, was an author and a former Army pilot. At an early age he discovered magic and juggling. At 16, he took his first steps on the wire. Petit learned everything by himself as he was being expelled from five different schools.
"Within one year," he told a reporter,
"I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, 'What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.' So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art."
He also became adept at equestrianism, fencing, carpentry, rock climbing and the art of Bull fighting. Spurning circuses and their formulaic performances, on the sidewalks of Paris he created his street persona. In the early 1970s, he frequently juggled and worked on a slack rope in New York City's Washington Square Park.
He also became adept at equestrianism, fencing, carpentry, rock climbing and the art of Bull fighting. Spurning circuses and their formulaic performances, on the sidewalks of Paris he created his street persona. In the early 1970s, he frequently juggled and worked on a slack rope in New York City's Washington Square Park.
Beginning in the 1970s, Petit began eyeing world-famous structures as stages for high-wire walks, which he executed as a combination of circus act and public performance. He performed
his first such walk between the towers of the Notre Dame De Paris In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia.
The "artistic crime of the century" took six years of planning, during which Petit learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind, and how to rig the steel cable across the 200 ft (61 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)). He traveled to New York on several occasions to make first-hand observations.
Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and New York-based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to make aerial photographs of the trade center.His friend Francis Brunn, the German juggler, provided financial support for the attempt and its planning.
his first such walk between the towers of the Notre Dame De Paris In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia.
He was first inspired to attempt what he called his "coup" on the Twin Towers while he sat in his dentist's office in Paris in 1968. In a magazine, he came upon an article about the yet-to-be constructed buildings, along with an illustration of the model. At this time, Petit began collecting articles on the Towers whenever he was able to.
The "artistic crime of the century" took six years of planning, during which Petit learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind, and how to rig the steel cable across the 200 ft (61 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)). He traveled to New York on several occasions to make first-hand observations.
Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and New York-based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to make aerial photographs of the trade center.His friend Francis Brunn, the German juggler, provided financial support for the attempt and its planning.
Petit snuck into the towers several times, hiding on the roof and other areas in the unfinished towers, in order to get a sense of what type of security measures were in place. Using his own observations and Moore's photographs, Petit was able to make a scale model of the towers to help him design the rigging he needed to prepare for the wirewalk.
He made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, to make it easier to get into the buildings, Petit carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that he could blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings.
He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with a French architecture magazine so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof.
The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to do the high-wire walk were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed.
He made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, to make it easier to get into the buildings, Petit carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that he could blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings.
He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with a French architecture magazine so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof.
The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to do the high-wire walk were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed.
On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew were able to ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment, and to store this equipment just nineteen steps from the roof. In order to pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow.
They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the space between the towers until they were able to pass the 450-pound steel cable across. Two cavaletti (guy ropes anchored to other points on the roof, of were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.
They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the space between the towers until they were able to pass the 450-pound steel cable across. Two cavaletti (guy ropes anchored to other points on the roof, of were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.
On Wednesday, 7 August 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core[6]) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter of a mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.
As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:
I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.[7]
Petit was warned by his friend on the South Tower that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire unless he got off. Rain had begun to fall, and Petit decided he had taken enough risks, so he decided to give himself up to the police waiting for him on the South Tower. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. Provoked by his taunting behaviour while on the wire, police handcuffed him behind his back and roughly pushed him down a flight of stairs. This he later described as the most dangerous part of the stunt.[8]
His high-wire performance made headlines around the world. When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."
Although movie cameras were on the roof during the walk, the person who was supposed to film the walk did not do so, apparently due to exhaustion from pulling the heavy cable tight after some of it had fallen, creating slack while the rigging was being set up.[9]
