Background on Tightrope Walking

Tightrope walking is the art of walking along thin wire, rope, or nylon webbing. It takes incredible balance, skill, and strength attempt the feat. Many times these acts are done at great heights and great distances as publicity stunts. A film was recently made on a famous tightrope walker, Philippe Petit, called “Man on Wire” documenting his daring feat of crossing the span of the twin towers in New York City in 1974. He walked along the wire for a total of 45 minutes. He used a custom made 26 long, 55 pound balancing pole for the act.

"If I die, what a beautiful death." -Philippe Petit

A more usual form of tightrope walking is slacklining, which is much more popular than highwire walking and can be done in a park or backyard. It still takes enormous skill to walk along a slackline but due to the width of the line and the fact that it is flat, it is easier to learn than regular rope walking. It is also not completely taut like the regular tightrope enabling dynamic tricks.