[June 16, 2012]    

With thousands of fans riveted on his every step, daredevil Nik Wallenda walked 1,800 feet on a tightrope spanning the mist-fogged Niagara Falls.

The crowds watched as he prepared on the U.S. side of the roaring falls, made his cautious decline toward the wettest portion of wire and then up toward the Canadian side.

The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas took steady, measured steps amid the rushing mist over the falls as an estimated crowd of 125,000 people on the Canadian side and 4,000 on the American side watched. Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud.

Here is a photo gallery of Wallenda's journey.

Nik Wallenda greets fans after inspecting the wire prior to his walk across Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y., on Friday. Wallenda would attempt what nobody had done before: a high-wire walk directly over the precipice at Niagara Falls and 190 feet (58 meters) above the churning torrent below.

AP photo by David Duprey

Nik Wallenda walks over Niagara Falls on a tightrope in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Friday. Wallenda has finished his attempt to become the first person to walk on a tightrope 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of roaring Niagara Falls. The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

 

The Maid of the Mist enters near the danger zone before Nik Wallenda's attempt to walk a 1,800-foot (550-meter) long tightrope over the brink of the Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Friday.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette

The 550-meter-long tightrope that Nik Wallenda will use hangs over Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada., on Friday. Conditions appeared good leading up to the nationally televised stunt scheduled for Friday night. It was expected that when Wallenda left terra firma about 10:15 p.m., temperatures would be in the low 60s with winds under 10 mph from the east, roughly at his back.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

 

Nik Wallenda walks over Niagara Falls on a tightrope as seen from Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Friday. Wallenda has finished his attempt to become the first person to walk on a tightrope 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of roaring Niagara Falls. The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

Nik Wallenda nears the middle of his tightrope walk over Niagara Falls as seen from Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Friday. Wallenda has finished his attempt to become the first person to walk on a tightrope 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of roaring Niagara Falls. The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Aaron Vincent Elkaim