Month: November 2014

It was some years after his wire-walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center that I first interviewed Philippe Petit, but his wire-walk seemed as fresh as yesterday. Petit had been plotting his 'criminal action' -- his phrase -- since reading about the towers-to-come in a French magazine. The towers went up. He came to New York, reconnoitred, sneaked in the wire, did the crucial rigging with an assistant and set out 1,350 feet above the ground just after 6am on 7 August 1974.