The Flying Wallendas astonished the world once again, becoming the first to cross New York's Times Square on a tightrope 25 stories above the city streets.
It was an incredible comeback for daredevil Nik Wallenda and his sister Lijana after she took a catastrophic fall during a high-wire stunt in 2017 and broke every bone in her face and suffered additional injury to her ribs and foot.
Seventh-generation daredevil Nik Wallenda, 40, and his sister Lijana, 42, started at opposite ends of the 1,300-foot wire between 1 and 2 Times Square and crossed in the middle, in a sweat-inducing stunt aired live on ABC.
Take a look at the gravity defying stunt!
All photographs: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Famed daredevil Nik Wallenda and his sister Lijana made the nerve-racking 1,300 foot crossing between 1 Times Square and 2 Times Square at 9.20 pm on Sunday. A huge crowd had collected to watch the siblings carry out the stunt.
The two slowly made their way toward the other, chatting with each other, Lijana singing at times, and talking to their father via a communications system. About 17 dramatic minutes in, the two met. Lijana then sat down on the wire, and Nik crossed over her.
In the stunt Nik and Lijana wore safety harnesses - something Nik usually opposes - as they braved the wire that's just three-fourths of an inch wide, the same width of a quarter.
The Wallendas come from a long-family of acrobats dating back to the late 1700s. Their first stunt in the US was in 1928 at Madison Square Garden. Nik Wallenda currently holds several Guinness World Records and is best known for crossing the Grand Canyon and the Niagara Falls while precariously balancing on a tight-wire.
People watch as Nik Wallenda and Lijana Wallenda cross Times Square on a high wire strung between two skyscrapers 25 stories above the pavement. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
