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Nik Wallenda Performs High-Wire Stunt Over Inner Harbor

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A death-defying feat over the Inner Harbor. Wednesday night, hundreds watched as a member of the world-famous Flying Wallenda family walked a tightrope over the water.

Meghan McCorkell was there for all the action.

Nik Wallenda walked high above the Inner Harbor on a tightrope that was just one inch wide for the length of a football field. That walk definitely had some shaky moments.

From Nik Wallenda's first step, the crowd held its breath.

"I thought he was going to fall in the water," said one observer.

"If you make a mistake, you die," said another.

Halfway through, he waved to the crowd.

"I was over here sweating like, `Oh my God, I hope he don't fall,'" said an observer.

But seconds later, there was a near tragedy.

"I looked up and I was talking to a friend of mine who was in the basket and I slipped and he turned pale white and freaked out, saying, `Are you OK? Are you OK?'" Nik Wallenda said.

But after just seven minutes, he made it to the top.

"My favorite part was when he was done, because I was scared," an observer said.

Watch Nik Wallenda cross the Inner Harbor:

The walk was to celebrate the opening of Ripley's Believe It or Not at the Inner Harbor. For this daredevil, it's just a warmup act. This was his final walk before he attempts to cross Niagara Falls on a high wire.

"Here, a boat or something could grab him. God forbid; hope they would never. But Niagara Falls, that's a little different," said former circus worker Ronnie King.

"There is extreme amounts of mist at times. It will be live in prime time, so I have a lot of things to contend with for that one," Wallenda said.

Wallenda is headed straight to Niagara Falls Thursday to begin practicing for that walk. It will happen June 15.

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