Niagara Falls Fun - Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls Canada

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Tightrope walker gets OK to cross Niagara Falls
June 22, 2011, 3:47 PM

ALBANY — The walk is on — at least as far state legislators are concerned.

It may be rare for the Legislature to OK something that legitimately can be called death-defying, but final approval was given Wednesday permitting a member of the legendary Flying Wallendas to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

More than 150 years after the “Great Blondin” first walked across the gorge on a tightwire, Nik Wallenda has gotten legislative approval to bypass a longtime state ban on stunts at the Falls to become the first person to try to legally walk a tightrope over the river since 1910.

The measure, which passed the Senate last week and was approved today by the Assembly, says a permit specifically for Wallenda is good for one year, though lawmakers say believe he could make the walk this fall as part of his new Discovery Channel show “Life on a Wire.”(…more)

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‘Prince of the Air’ grounded by security costs
Costs for hiring off-duty police ‘destroy’ return of wirewalker Jay Cochrane, coucillor says
Posted By Corey Larocque

The $40,000 cost of hiring police to close Clifton Hill every day “destroyed” plans to bring tightrope walker Jay Cochrane back to Niagara Falls this summer, says Coun. Wayne Thomson, a go-between for Cochrane and tourism operators.

Tourism operators had been making arrangements to bring Cochrane, “The Prince of the Air” back to Niagara Falls this summer, this time to perform on Clifton Hill.

“It was going exceptionally well. In the final analysis, it came down to the police costs which were in the area of $40,000 for the summer,” Thomson said in an interview Tuesday.

Niagara Falls Tourism’s website says Cochrane “is expected to return to Niagara Falls” this summer. His plans were to walk a wire between the Sheraton-on-the-Falls hotel, at the corner of Falls Avenue and Clifton Hill, to a platform erected on the south side of Clifton Hill on land owned by HOCO. (more…)

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Cochrane could walk the falls in ’09
Posted By John Law, The Review

By JOHN LAW

Review Staff Writer

Famed wirewalker Jay Cochrane still wants to make Niagara Falls his retirement project, but a proposed walk across the river could be in the works for 2009 instead of next year.

After another summer spent performing in Niagara Falls – his third in six years – Cochrane was hopeful the Niagara Parks Commission would let him be the first man in more than a century to walk a wire across the falls. He pointed to the summer of 2008 for the event, which he predicted could attract a million people to the city. (more…)

Originally Printed by the Associated Press
Tightrope Walker Looks to Cross Falls

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

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. (more…)

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Coming Down to the Wire

JOHN LAW

Saturday, August 11, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – He isn’t supposed to be doing this, of course. No 63-year-old man should.

That’s the age you start winding down. Preparing for retirement. Dealing with new aches and pains.

It’s not the age you step onto a cable 200 feet in the air for a walk across the Niagara Falls skyline. (more…)

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Fifty years on the wire

JOHN LAW

Friday, August 10, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – He isn’t supposed to be doing this, of course. No 63-year-old man should.

That’s the age you start winding down. Preparing for retirement. Dealing with new aches and pains.

It’s not the age you step onto a cable 200 feet in the air for a walk across the Niagara Falls skyline. (more…)

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Cochrane prepping falls walk plans

JOHN LAW

Thursday, August 02, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – As Jay Cochrane has discovered, changing someone’s mind can be expensive.

The famed Canadian wirewalker is preparing an exhaustive presentation that he hopes will convince the Niagara Parks Commission to fulfil his dream of walking a wire across Niagara Falls.

He has 30 people working for him on the project. He expects it to be 100 soon. He has hired a “major” public relations firm in New York City.

Even before this summer, he says he spent $200,000 of his own money for preliminary work on a possible walk, despite the commission’s longstanding policy against such things.

He expects to spend more than that before this summer’s over. But by this time next year, it could all be worth it. (more…)

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Wirewalker preparing pitch of a lifetime

JOHN LAW

Wednesday, August 01, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – As Jay Cochrane has discovered, changing someone’s mind can be expensive.

The famed Canadian wirewalker is preparing an exhaustive presentation which he hopes will convince the Niagara Parks Commission to fulfill his dream of walking a wire across Niagara Falls.

He has 30 people working for him on the project. He expects it to be 100 soon. He has hired a “major” public relations firm in New York City.

Even before this summer, he had spent $200,000 of his own money for preliminary work on a possible walk, despite the Commission’s longstanding policy against such things.

He expects to spend more than that before this summer’s over. But by this time next year, it could all be worth it.

“It’s an enormous project,” said the 63-year-old Cochrane moments before his daily skywalk near the Skylon Tower. “We want to make sure, with no mistake, that we answer every question the Parks asks us one thousand and ten percent to their satisfaction.

“This is something that takes time, and has to be done very, very thoroughly. You’ll only get one opportunity to do this correctly.”

Read more in Thursday’s Review

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© 2007 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Niagara Falls Review acticles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review.

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Parks wants more info on wirewalk

RAY SPITERI

Saturday, July 21, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – Jay Cochrane has spent the past four decades winning over audiences around the world with his death-defying feats.

But the 63-year-old wirewalker will have to put on the performance of a lifetime when he meets with the Niagara Parks Commission to sell them on a plan to let him do what no one has done in more than 100 years.

The commission voted today to consider a formal proposal by Cochrane to walk across Niagara Falls on a high wire sometime next year. (more…)

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WILL HE WALK?

RAY SPITERI

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 – 07:00

Local News – Daredevil or stuntman – he says he’s neither.

But nobody can say Jay Cochrane isn’t persistent.

Armed with an endorsement from city council, the 63-year-old wirewalker is once again knocking on the door of the Niagara Parks Commission.

The North Bay native has sent a letter to the agency requesting permission to walk on a wire over the Niagara River at the falls from the United States to Canada in 2008, according to parks commission general manager John Kernahan.

A previous request from Cochrane – who is putting on two shows a day near the Skylon Tower this summer – to walk a tightrope from Goat Island on the American side of the Niagara to the top of the Skylon Tower on the Canadian side, was denied in 1997. (more…)