NEW YORK: Renowned French high-wire artist Philippe Petit marked the 50th anniversary of his famous walk between New York’s Twin Towers with a performance in a Manhattan cathedral, accompanied by live music from Sting. Petit walked between the spires of the World Trade Center skyscrapers, 1,350 feet up, on August 7, 1974.

A photographer captured the feat with the New York skyline in the background as Petit — without a harness — made the crossing. Now aged 74, he partly recreated his gravity-defying stunt on Thursday in the Cathedral of St John the Divine, about seven miles north of the former Twin Towers which were destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“Of course, my illegal walk between the towers was the most important moment of my life at the time, and now I look back and I have done something like 100 high wire walks all over the world,” Petit said. In the reconstruction, Petit was met by a police officer as he completed his walk.

The New York Times, which called Petit’s Twin Towers walk the “art crime of the century”, reported that in 1974 after 45 minutes of “knee bends and other stunts,” Petit turned himself over to waiting police.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024