Nik Wallenda's Tightrope Walk Over Niagara Falls

Hanes Supply’s wire rope and 16 Crosby 2 inch G-450 wire rope clips, to secure the tight rope cable, were used for Nik Wallenda “King of the High Wire” at the Niagara Falls casino as he practiced for his “Wallenda Walk Over The Falls” on June 15th 2012.

We spoke with his uncle, Mike Troffer, who told us the same rigging and crane setup will be used when they set the wire that will go from Goat Island on the US side to Table Rock on the Canadian side. The length of that cable will be 1880’ from anchor point to anchor point, weighing 7 tons. In preparation for the installation at Niagara Falls on the US side, crews dug into the ground until they hit bedrock, and then drilled 15’ down from there to secure the anchors for the rigging set up.

Hanes Supply also rented the dynamometer, a load indicating device (LID), which was used to measure the load on the wire rope that Nik was walking across. Here you see Nik’s uncle Mike checking the calculations on the dynamometer before Nik’s practice walk on May 22nd.

Around 7 pm on Tuesday, June 12, a helicopter carried the Yale rope across the Horseshoe Falls. This rope then pulled the steel cable Wallenda will use.

The tensioner, pictured above, is from Novia Scotia. It is used to keep the tension of 40,000 lb on the cable Nik will walk on.

PROJECT DETAILS

LOCATION
Buffalo, NY

DATE
December 2011

RIGGING
HSI Custom 1 inch Wire Rope Assemblies