Tightrope Walker Takes To Atlantic City Sky This Thursday
By Diana Rocco
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (CBS) -- It's a stage 125 feet above the ground. The cranes are up and the rope is in place, all ready for a tightrope walk high above the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
On Thursday at 3 p.m., Nik Wallenda will make it happen--rain or shine. The tightrope he'll walk is the width of a nickel, and he'll be performing without a safety net or harness.
"I feel great. I feel good. I'm excited. My great-grandfather used to say, 'Life is on the wire; everything else is just waiting.' We really live that, as a family," Wallenda says.
Nik comes from a long line of tightrope walkers, the Flying Wallendas. Next week is the 40th anniversary of his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda's 600 foot walk above Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. Nik says he would have liked to attempt that, but the stadium is no longer there.
"I'm carrying on a legacy, standing on the shoulders of giants. We go back seven generations," Wallenda says.
After two years of training, the 33-year-old Wallenda became the first man to walk across Niagara Falls this June. It was a life-long dream, and he did it in just 26 minutes.
"I wanted to be the first person in the world who will walk across the other side, and little did I know I would be," Wallenda says. He trained in hard conditions for two years for that walk.
The Wallenda's show at the Tropicana starts next week and runs through September 22nd.
