Watching Wallenda

Nik Wallenda provided an unparalleled boost to binational tourism as he also entertained a worldwide television audience Friday night in the first crossing on foot directly over the brightly illuminated Niagara Falls from New York state to Ontario,Canada.The walk,which made even TV viewers feel some vertigo,went off without incident.Indeed,Wallenda,a man with clear eyes and a ready smile on his open face,a member of the legendary acrobatic family The Fying Wallendas,answered several questions from ABC journalists as he negotiated the daunting traverse over one of the natural wonders of North America and the globe.The hazards he faced included the prodigious mist generated by the falls;unpredictable swirling winds;the endurance required to make the trek with a huge balancing pole;and the sheer magnitude of the concentration needed to navigate various lights,crowd noise,and the extreme visual stimuli of crossing the precipice of the river dropping 158 feet into the chasm below.Many prayers sustained the acrobat's spirit,as did the thought of his great grandfather and German emigre Karl Wallenda,the family patriarch who fell to his death off a tightrope in Puerto Rico in the 1970s. The master of the tightrope Nik Wallenda said his next goal was to walk across the Grand Canyon at a height of 1400 feet and a width of more than a mile.Permits have already been secured and ABC,part of the Walt Disney Company,is no doubt eagerly seeking that broadcast as well. Walt Disney(DIS)