Villager Philippe Petit Brought Magic to the Twin Towers
French highwire artist and street performer Philippe Petit rose to prominence following a series of unauthorized tight-rope walks across some of the world’s most iconic landmarks. First, in 1971, Petit tight-roped between the towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. In 1973, he crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, in Sydney, Australia. And perhaps most famously, he walked between the tops of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City in August of 1974. imbuing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center with a whimsy and magic many felt their hulking monolithic architecture lacked. The high-wire daredevil was eventually drawn to perform his craft (and live) in another place with no shortage of whimsy and magic: Greenwich Village.
Petit was born on August 13th, 1949, in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France. During his youth, Petit began training in circus spectacles, including magic and juggling. Petit first learned of the Twin Towers at age 18 at the dentist’s office, when he stumbled across a sketch of them in the newspaper. It was 1968, and the towers were not yet constructed, and young Petit was only just beginning to develop his skills as a highwire artist.
After completing his first two unauthorized high-wire walks, first in Paris then in Sydney, Petit traveled to New York in 1974 and began to plan the logistics of walking between the towers, which were, unsurprisingly, complicated. Petit had no authorization to complete the walk. He and several of his friends, including photographer Jean-Louis Blondeau, would spend several months meticulously surveying the buildings.
The towers, still incomplete, had a steady stream of office workers, construction workers, and delivery people cycling in and out each day. Petit and his crew of friends/accomplices snuck in on the afternoon of August 6th, 1974. Blondeau and another friend snuck into the North Tower disguised as office workers, while Petit and another friend snuck into the South Tower dressed as delivery people. The alleged couriers carried with them a bag marked “Electric Fence,” inside of which were the tools they needed to complete their mission. This included a walk cable (weighing 440 lbs), a walkie-talkie, and a 28-foot and 45 pound balancing pole, which had been broken into several lengths and falsely labeled “antenna.” The incomplete towers only had an elevator that went to the 104th floor, meaning Petit and his friend had to carry their equipment up the remaining more than 180 steps. When they finally got upstairs, they spent the night preparing for the walk.
To set up, they used an arrow cast with a thin line to shoot the tightrope to the other building, a distance of 140 feet. The team then spent seven hours tugging and adjusting the rope. That morning, August 7th, Petit changed into his wire walking attire: an all-black outfit and wire-walking slippers. He began his walk at 7:15 AM. Using a yellow grease pencil, he wrote his symbol, name and date on a beam on the roof, and took off. He performed between the towers for nearly an hour, dancing, laying down and sitting on the wire as he performed.
As the performance continued, police officers gathered on each roof, and when Petit was finished, he was promptly arrested. The Manhattan District Attorney (working with the Parks Commissioner) opted to drop the charges against Petit, under the condition that he give a performance in a New York City park for the city’s children. Later that year he fulfilled this duty by walking across the Belvedere Lake in Central Park.
The Twin Towers walk was nothing short of extraordinary. Petit is often credited with raising public opinion about the architecture of the two towers, which were initially unpopular. In 1974 he also began to perform his tricks in Washington Square Park, a spot chosen due to its view of the Towers. Following the famous walk, Petit was offered major sponsorships. He refused, and by the late 1980s, Petit, who was by then living in the Village, opted to make a living by riding his unicycle to Washington Square Park, where he would perform his circus theatrics.
Following the events of September 11th, 2001, Petit would return to Washington Square, where he put on several commemorative performances.
