They've sat on, danced on, and ran across wires. They've eaten donuts on their heads dozens of feet above ground. They've allowed thousands of volts of electricity to be pumped into a suit surrounding their body.
Basically, in its many, many years of existence, New York City has borne witness to many daredevils; guys who climbed skyscrapers, and even a girl who scaled the Williamsburg Bridge.
Everyone listed below has crossed the threshold of safe. Why'd they do it? Well, they each had their own reasons. Some performed their stunts in the name of science, while one other was acting on behalf of a donut advertisement.
Whatever their reasons, we've compiled a list of some of the baddest stunts NYC has ever seen.
We just beg you to please, please not try this at home. Seriously. We're flabbergasted these people all survived the following stunts.
1. When Philippe Petit walked on a wire across the Twin Towers
Via InEnArt
On August 7th, 1974, Philippe Petit illegally rigged a 250 foot, one inch thick braided wire between the Twin Towers and danced 1,350 feet above the ground for nearly an hour.
"They called me," Petit said about the towers. "I didn't choose them. Anything that is giant and manmade strikes me in an awesome way and calls me ... It was something that had to be done, and I couldn't explain it... it was a calling of the romantic type."
Petit trained for this stunt for six years, learning everything he could about the World Trade Center, scouting the towers, and even posing as a journalist to interview a Port Authority executive.
When he embarked on his journey across the 130-foot gap between the towers a little after seven in the morning, people stopped to point and gape at Petit by the thousands.
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"He was bouncing up and down... His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again... Unbelievable really," said Sgt. Charles Daniels of the Port Authority Police Department, who observed the stunt.
Afterward, Petit was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and jailed. Still, he perpetrated the artistic crime of the century.
The Walk, a feature film about Petit's stunt, will hit theaters October 2nd starring Joseph Gorden-Levitt as Petit.
[via Manonwire.com and PBS]
2. When the Flying Wallendas balanced 55 feet above Madison Square Garden
Via JCS Group
In 1928 the Flying Wallendas toured Europe performing their 4-person, 3-level pyramid 50 feet above the ground while a chair balanced between the shoulders of two men on bicycles on a wire. This sounds pretty wild, sure, but while they toured Europe, they had a net.
Then, they came to New York City to debut their act at Madison Square Garden. But unfortunately, their net was misplaced in shipping.
So what did the Flying Wallendas do? They performed without their net, of course. Fifty-five feet above the pavement at Madison Square Garden, a performance which earned a 15-minute standing ovation.
After this incident, the daredevil dynasty never used a net again.
[via Wallenda.com and The Post Game]
3. When Seanna Sharpe scaled and performed on the Williamsburg Bridge
Via Grist
Sharpe, who's performed for Crique De Soleil, the Guggenheim, and with Beyoncé, staged an aerialist performance 300 feet above the ground in July of 2011.
The 24-year-old climbed a tower on the Williamsburg Bridge with the help of 27-year-old magician Thomas Skinner.
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Sharpe then performed acrobatics for 15 minutes before she and Skinner were both arrested for endangerment and criminal trespassing.
Sharpe, however, knew she'd be arrested. She brought a lawyer with her to the bridge.
[via CBS]
4. When David Blaine electrified himself at Pier 54
Via Digital Spy
In October of 2012, magician David Blaine spent three days and three nights standing in the midst of 1 million volts of electric currents at NYC's very own Pier 54 near West 13th Street.
Blaine wore a chain-mail suit and an array of Telsa electrical coils designed by the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.
Blaine stood on a 20-foot-high pillar for 72 straight hours without sleep or food while the million volts of electricity was pumped around the Faraday suit on Blaine's body (named for the 19th-century electricity pioneer Michael Faraday).
"It's like having your whole body surrounded by static electricity, the kind that makes your hair stand up on end," Blaine said. "It doesn't hurt, but it's strange. I have no idea what 72 hours of exposure to these electromagnetic forces will do to the electrons in my cells and the neurons in my brain."
And the audience doled out the electric volts. Viewers in London, Beijing, Tokyo, and Sydney took turns controlling which of the seven coils were turned on, and at what intensity. They could also play music by producing different notes from the coils.
Intel sponsored the vent and referred to it as "experiential exposition." The Liberty Science Center viewed "Electrified" as a way to "teach principles of electromagnetism discovered in the late 19th century by Nikola Tesla ... who invented a coil for quickly generating high-voltage bursts of electricity."
Blaine himself said that aside from a longstanding desire to test his physical limits, he also wanted to complete "Electrified" to pay tribute to Tesla.
"I've always been obsessed with him," Blaine said. "He was a scientific genius who created real magic by defying what his peers thought was possible."
[via New York Times]
,5. When Alvin Kelly ate donuts on his head on a 42nd Street Skyscraper
Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly was famous in the 1920s for his flap-pole sitting feats. He once sat atop a flagpole for 49 days.
In 1939, though, when this photo was taken, Kelly's flagpole-sitting days had passed. Instead, he was using this photo to promote National Donut Dunking Week.
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Which is why he ate a donut on his head on the roof of the Chanin Building on East 42nd Street.
For a guy who took a lot of risks, he died in a relatively monotonous way. In 1952, broke and on welfare, he dropped dead while walking between two parked cars in NYC. Still, his badass feats are immortalized to this day.
[via Ephemeral New York]
6. When Bello Nock sat 27 feet above Times Square on a wire for eight hours
Via Fox Sports
In an attempt to set the world record for "The Longest Continuous Interview on a Wire," Bello Nock sat atop a wire 27 feet above Times Square for eight hours in June of 2014.
He drew a crowd of hundreds.
"The dude's crazy. He's been up there all day, just sitting on that wooden chair, way up in the air, talking to all people in all sorts of different tongues," said a security guard who witnessed the spectacle.
Nock is a seventh generation circus performer who morphed into a stuntman. He balanced himself with a 21-foot pole, and gave over 24 interviews from his perch in the sky, breaking the world record for most interviews conducted on a high wire.
[via Fox Sports]
7. When Alain Robert and Renaldo Clarke climbed the New York Times Building
Via NY Times
In June of 2008, two men climbed the New York Times building on the same day, but hours apart. The first one, Alain Robert, is a practiced French stuntman who's famous for climbing tall buildings.
The second, Renaldo Clarke, is a New Yorker who said he climbed the building to raise awareness of the dangers of malaria.
Both climbed the 52-story building on the same Thursday.
When Robert, the Frenchman, reached the top of the building, he unfurled a bright green banner that read "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week."
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Both climbers used the horizontal rods outside the building as a ladder without any ropes or harnesses. Robert came wearing a fanny pack with chalk and something to drink. Clarke was less prepared, and looked fatigued during his climb.
"He stopped and hung by his arms. His feet were just swinging back and forth," said Nick Mudge, a 24-year-old chef who witnessed both climbs.
Clarke claimed his climb had nothing to do with Robert's climb. Both climbers were arrested for reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Robert was also charged with graffiti, because of the barrier he unfurled after his climb.
[via New York Times]
Check out 5 Spots You Can Climb to Catch the Absolute Best View in NYC.
[Feature Image Courtesy: Daily Mail]