Famed stuntman Nik Wallenda, who last month became the first person allowed to cross directly over Niagara Falls, did so on a 2-in.-dia. cable that was stretched 1,800 ft across the U.S.-Canada border waterfalls by a team of engineers, contractors and members of an electrical workers' union local in East Syracuse, N.Y.
For the June 15 event, the first sanctioned high-wire walk in the Niagara Gorge in 116 years, POWER Engineers, Hailey, Idaho, and O'Connell Electric, Rochester, N.Y., designed and managed the cable installation that included micropile anchors set into bedrock on both sides of the falls, using 170-ton cranes. The anchors held the seven-ton cable at a tension of 60,000 lb.