Wallenda’s Niagara Falls tightrope walk is a go this summer

Niagara Falls, Ontario: Daredevil Nik Wallenda is set to walk a 548 metre tightrope across Niagara Falls this summer, a feat the seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas said has been his childhood dream.

"I feel like I'm on top of the world," Wallenda said Wednesday after the Niagara Parks Commission, which months ago refused even to consider the idea, voted unanimously to allow the walk between the United States and Canada.

Approval from the Canadian panel was Wallenda's largest remaining obstacle after he convinced the New York Legislature to pass a bill allowing the walk last year.

Wallenda plans to run a custom-made five-centimetre wire 18 to 21 metre above the 48-metre gorge, which will dip down in the middle, meaning he'll walk downhill during the first half of the 30- to 40-minute walk and uphill until the end. "My dream really is to walk down through that mist and walk back out," he said.

Wallenda has until the end of March to work out details of the walk, including its start and end points. He has a deal with Discovery television to broadcast the spectacle live.

While US authorities immediately saw a potential economic and tourism boom, the Canadian panel feared such a stunt would cheapen the natural wonder of the falls and invite a return to the carnival-like atmosphere seen beginning in the mid-1800s, when daredevils sailed over the brink in barrels with mixed success and tightrope walkers traversed the gorge, though never the falls themselves.

The commissioners reconsidered the request after Wallenda gained the support of Ontario tourism minister Michael Chan and elected officials.