Man Readies Tightrope Walk Over Niagara Falls

(NECN/NBC: Jay Gray, Niagara Falls, N.Y.) - A member of the seventh generation of the famous Flying Wallendas family will get a perspective of the falls like one one else.

He will attempt to to tightrope walk across the falls 200 feet above the mighty falls.

Nik has been walking tightropes since he was 2, and believes the spirit of his grandfather will be with him as he attempts the stunt.

The Wallendas trace their fearless roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists.

His great-grandfather, Karl, was the patriarch of the modern day Wallendas and himself walked over the Tallulah Gorge on a tightrope. He died at age 73 when he fell from a wire in Puerto Rico.

Fourteen family members perform today in various troupes.

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