Originally Printed by the Associated Press
Tightrope Walker Looks to Cross Falls
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (AP) — For more than 40 years, visitors to this tourist town have gazed upward to a fiberglass likeness of 19th century tightrope walker Charles Blondin occupying not only his fabled wire, but his place as Niagara Falls’ most famous funambulist.
This summer, tourists also have been bending their necks for a flesh-and-blood contemporary. Twice each day, Jay Cochrane has traversed a wire between two 20-story towers set 1,000 feet apart, addressing onlookers with a showman’s skills honed over a 50-year career.
“Welcome to Canada!” he announces from above as his electric blue costume’s sequins spark like flashbulbs in the sun.
By summer’s end, Cochrane will have performed 300 “skywalks,” as he calls them, a block or so from the water’s edge.
But he will hardly be done with Niagara Falls.
Next year, the 63-year-old performer wants to walk a tightrope from the United States into Canada over the brink of the Falls, something no one, not even “The Great Blondin,” has ever done.
Cochrane even has a vision of immortality, if he’s successful. He imagines a green laser beam shooting through the night sky across the Falls, forming a virtual wire atop which would walk a 3-D hologram of himself, re-creating his feat each night high above Blondin’s statue.
“Times and technology have changed,” he notes.
But first, Cochrane must complete the more than half-mile walk, no simple feat.
Before that, he must get permission, also not so easy.
Cochrane’s requests to walk above Niagara Falls have been rejected in past years, most recently in 1996. Parks officials in the United States and Canada have cited concerns about safety, cost and environmental impact, which are the basis for strict policies against stunting and daredevil acts.
Cochrane argues he is different than the barrel riders and rapids “shooters” — some successful, some not — immortalized in the area’s shamelessly kitschy museums.
“I’m the same as an Olympic athlete,” he said on a recent afternoon in his room at the Holiday Inn, gauging the wind before the day’s shows by the flags and trees outside. “The only difference is, an Olympic athlete trains to go to the Olympics every four years. He can come home with the gold, bronze or the silver. I go to the Olympics every day and I must come home with the gold.”
“I realize what it is and I am very cautious,” Cochrane said. “That’s why I’ve been doing it for 50 years, why I’m still here.”
It has been more than 100 years since a tightrope walker has crossed the Niagara River at the Falls. Eleven have done it — but all have walked over the gorge below the 180-foot waterfalls, never over the brink, as Cochrane has proposed.
Despite the past rejections, Cochrane is more confident than ever that he is close to getting the go-ahead to attempt the feat.
In his corner is former Niagara Falls, Ontario, Mayor Wayne Thomson, who is now a city councillor.
Cochrane is no daredevil or stuntman, Thomson says, but a careful performer and athlete who could do wonders for tourism.
“He certainly does not have a death wish. He does this every day and is confident and has proven … walking all summer long, that he is competent,” he said.
Thomson recently persuaded the City Council to unanimously pass a resolution urging the Niagara Parks Commission to permit the walk.
In July, the parks commission asked for a detailed business plan for the proposal, a hopeful sign for supporters of the walk.
“The commission must carefully examine its current policy in light of how such a walk would meet the interests of the park, province, public and local community we serve,” said chairman Jim Williams.
There is support from officials on the U.S. side, along with doubts.
Saying Cochrane’s “fantastic idea” hearkens back to the carnival-like days when tightrope walkers were a regular family attraction, Niagara Falls, N.Y., City Council President Robert Anderson Jr. said, “I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take too much to convince my colleagues to support it.”
But Mark Thomas, the Niagara region’s director of state parks, called it a stunt and added: “We do not want it associated with our parks.”
The U.S. and Canadian parks agencies will have final say on Cochrane’s plan.
Cochrane and engineers are compiling drawings and timelines and outlining equipment and construction needs.
“It looks, if we do our homework properly and make the proper presentations, it looks pretty positive that this could come together for next year,” said Thomson, who was mayor for 17 years.
“I don’t mean to be flippant, but for me, it is a day at the office,” Cochrane said. “My office just happens to be on the 20th floor or the 40th floor or whatever. Happens to be on a wire.”
Extraordinarily fit at 63 from the rigors of his act and a strict diet that has never included alcohol, Cochrane constructs his own towers and rigging, calling on his master’s degree in bridge and structural engineering.
His hands-on philosophy dates back to 1965 when, while working in a circus, a poorly built tower collapsed, sending him 90 feet to the concrete below and temporarily paralyzing his legs. He spent four years convalescing.
This summer, he began his 50th year on the tightrope, and he says he is about ready to move on to the next phase in his career, likely teaching performance techniques.
“Maybe next year if I do this walk, maybe that will be my last one. It’ll depend on my physical ability,” he said. “I don’t want them standing there watching me and say, `Yeah, he’s pretty good but I remember him when.'”
Niagara Falls consists of three waterfalls: the American Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. Cochrane proposes constructing a tower on the New York side of the Falls, running the wire down the Niagara River, over the brink of the American Falls, to the top of the existing Skylon Tower on the Canadian side.
The business plan will address the who, what, where and when of the walk. Cochrane himself, over a glass of milk (he drinks a gallon a day), answered the “why.”
Partly, it’s for kids, he said. Proceeds from Cochrane’s walks and autograph sessions over the summer went to the Tender Wishes Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill children. “My personal goal,” he said, “is to raise half a billion dollars for children.”
But that’s not all.
“It’s not about me conquering it, I’ve conquered things all over the world,” said Cochrane, who once walked a quarter mile above the Yangtze River in China’s Qutang Gorge.
Instead, the Toronto native sees the walk as an opportunity to return home and help elevate tourism and uplift the surrounding communities.
“It will bring back a sense of pride,” he said.