Weekly Trivia Quiz # 239

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Philippe Petit (born August 13, 1949) is a French high wire artist who gained fame for his illegal walk between the former Twin Towers in New York City on August 7 1974. He used a 450 pound cable to do so and also a custom made 26 foot long, 55 pound balancing pole. Tight-rope walker, unicyclist, magician and pantomime artist, Philippe Petit was also one of the earliest modern day street jugglers in Paris in 1968. He juggled and worked on a slack rope with regularity in Washington Square Park in New York City in the early 1970s. Petit is one of the Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Other famous structures he has used for tightrope walks include that Cathedral, the Louisiana Superdome, and between the Palais de Chaillot and the Eiffel Tower. Petit currently lives in Woodstock, New York. Planning the World Trade Center Walk

Petit first received the inspiration while he sat in his dentist's office in Paris. He came upon an article on the incomplete towers, along with an illustration in model form. He then became obsessed with the towers, collecting articles on the towers whenever possible. Petit also traveled to New York on several occasions to have some first hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction. Philippe and NY based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to do aerial photographs of the WTC. It was for the purpose of having these photographs for Petit to make a scale model of the towers to help him figure out the rigging he needed to prepare for the upcoming wirewalk. Petit and three others made fake identification cards claiming that they were contractors that were installing an electrified fence on the roof in order to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, Petit sneaked into the towers several times, hiding on the roof and other areas in the unfinished towers, in order to get a sense of what type of equipment he needed.

To make it easier to sneak into the buildings, Petit thoroughly observed the clothes that construction workers wore, what kinds of tools they carried, and what businessmen dressed like so that he would blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings. He also noted what time the workers arrived and left, so he could figure out when he would have access to the roof. He once even claimed that he was with a French architecture magazine wanting to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, but the real reason he wanted to be up on the roof was to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to complete the stunt were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed with it.

Petit and his crew were able to ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment the day before the stunt, and were able to store this equipment just nineteen steps from the roof. In order to pass the cable across the gap, Petit and his crew decided to use a crossbow. They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the gap until they were able to pass the 450 pound cable across. Guy lines were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum. For the first time in the history of the Twin Towers, they were connected. The stunt took six years of planning, during which he learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind and how to get the walking cable across the 140 foot gap between the towers. The Walk Between the Towers

Shortly after 7:15 a.m., after hesitating briefly because of a strong breeze, Petit stepped off the North Tower and onto the wire. The 24-year-old Petit made eight crossings between the still unfinished towers, a quarter mile above the Earth, in an event that lasted about 75 minutes. During that time, in addition to walking, he jumped up and down, and lay upon on the wire as well.

Port Authority Police Department Sgt. Charles Daniels, who was dispatched to the roof to bring Petit down, later reported his experience:

I observed the tightrope 'dancer' - because you couldn't call him a 'walker' - approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire... And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle... He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again... Unbelievable really.... [E]verybody was spellbound in the watching of it.[1]

He was finally persuaded by police officers to give himself up after he was warned that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire. Petit was worried that the wind from the helicopter would knock him off the wire, so he decided it was time to give up. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. His stunt made headlines around the world.

When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say “When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk.”