Video: Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda becomes first man to cross Niagara Falls Step by drenched step, through swirling mist and gusting wind, Nik Wallenda has become the first man in history to walk across Niagara Falls at their most ferocious. The scion of a famous acrobatic family edged his way for 1,800ft along a two-inch diameter steel rope nearly 200 feet above the churning maelstrom. The last tightrope walker to cross part of the gorge completed the feat in 1896, before the authorities imposed a ban on the growing band of adventurers drawn to the falls. But Mr Wallenda is the first stuntman to cross the full stretch directly over the churning torrent. More than 100,000 people gathered on the American and Canadian sides of Niagara as he walked from the US to Canada, while millions more watched on television as the ABC network broadcast the spectacle live.