Coronavirus fears have greatly restricted access to Georgia’s state parks and recreation areas this summer. Visitors to Tallulah Gorge State Park in Rabun County should prepare for lengthy waits to walk down to the famed suspension bridge. The park’s website cautions would-be day hikers that “admission may be limited for several hours,” adding “we are not issuing gorge floor or climbing permits at this time and our interpretive center is closed until further notice.”
But 50 years ago, one man demonstrated the ultimate in social distancing, of a sort, when he walked 700 feet above Tallulah Gorge on a tightrope.
On July 18, 1970, circus star Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas “walked 1,000 feet toe-to-heel above the jagged bottom of the gorge in 17.7 minutes — 22.3 minutes less than had been predicted,” according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writers Ron Taylor and Chip Callaway, who penned the next-day story on the walk.
Wallenda performed two headstands on the tightrope during the skywalk.
Credit: Charles D. Jackson
Credit: Charles D. Jackson
Taylor and Callaway described the 65-year-old’s skywalk as “541 fast but careful steps across Tallulah Gorge.”
When AJC writer Bob Harrell asked Karl Wallenda’s older brother, Herman, why the younger Wallenda made such daring skywalks, Herman Wallenda replied “It is what he knows best. His ego. Money. He is best for it.”
Tapes of the microphone monologue of Wallenda indicated he joked most of the way as he traversed the gorge. Once he directed his remarks to his wife, Helen. “Darling, are you there? I am coming.” Then, “It’s martini time. I’d better hurry.” Wallenda had said (the night before the walk) that he wanted a martini as soon as he completed the trek.
“As Wallenda stepped off the catwalk, dust rose behind him,” the article states. “The car taking his wife to the destination tower was leaving. Helen [Wallenda] had avoided watching her husband perform after near tragedy in a Hartford, Conn., circus fire in 1966. She wanted to see as little of (the) walk as possible.”
Credit: AJC Print Archives
Credit: AJC Print Archives
Despite the AJC headline, ‘Wallenda Makes Walk Look Easy,’ the veteran performer still faced danger. “Only once did Wallenda seem in danger of falling,” the article says. “As he reached the middle of the wire, a gust of wind caused him to stagger slightly.”
“Though always expressing confidence,” the article continues, “Wallenda must have had doubts for at one point he assured himself, ‘Karl, you’re going to make it.' When he reached the end, among his first words were, ‘I made it.‘‘’
Eight years after his Tallulah Gorge skywalk, Wallenda died during a similar attempt, this time between the two towers of the 10-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. High winds caused the 73-year-old stunt performer to fall 121 feet to his death on the pavement below.
The risks involved in Wallenda’s line of work weren’t lost on Taylor and Callaway. The reporters noted the reaction of Wallenda’s wife, Helen, after his successful feat. ‘‘When I drove up here alone, I thought I might be driving back alone. Now I have someone to go back with me. I am so happy.‘'
Karl Wallenda’s great-grandson, Nik, currently continues the family tradition of high-wire skywalks.
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