Nik Wallenda, sister planning highwire walk over Times Square

The siblings will cross the tourist hotspot during a 1,300-foot (396-meter) simultaneous highwire walk 25 stories above the ground.

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Nik Wallenda speaks at a press conference in Chicago after successfully walking the wire across the Chicago River, Sunday November 2, 2014. | Jessica Koscielniak / Sun-Times

Nik Wallenda speaks at a press conference in Chicago after successfully walking the wire across the Chicago River, Sunday November 2, 2014.

Jessica Koscielniak / Sun-Times, File

NEW YORK — For his next trick, daredevil Nik Wallenda plans to cross New York’s Times Square — without his feet touching the ground.

ABC announced Thursday that Wallenda and his sister Lijana will cross the tourist hotspot during a 1,300-foot (396-meter) simultaneous highwire walk 25 stories above the ground. ABC will air the attempt during a two-hour prime-time special on June 23.

It will be Lijana Wallenda’s first highwire walk since a 2017 accident in Florida left her and four other members of the family’s troupe seriously injured. The Times Square walk will involve unspecified safety devices, but organizers say it does not eliminate all risks.

ABC says the siblings will start from opposite ends of the wire, which will be suspended between two of Times Square’s towers, including one that is home to The New York Times.

Nik Wallenda said in a statement: “I am beyond excited to be able to walk with my sister, Lijana, as she overcomes near-death injuries and continues the Wallenda tradition of never giving up.”

His feats have included a 1,800-foot (549-meter) tightrope walk from the New York side of Niagara Falls into Canada in 2012 and a 2013 crossing of the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon.

The special, which is being produced by dick clark productions, will include footage of the siblings’ preparations and their family’s history of death-defying stunts.

Residents watch from their balconies as tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walks along a wire, slightly more than a half inch in diameter, blindfolded, between the towers of the Marina City condominium buildings following his walk from the west tower to the to

Residents watch from their balconies as tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walks along a wire, slightly more than a half inch in diameter, blindfolded, between the towers of the Marina City condominium buildings following his walk from the west tower to the top of the 671-foot-tall Leo Burnett building on November 2, 2014 in Chicago.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

“In 1928, my family performed at Madison Square Garden in the City of Dreams for the first time in the USA,” said Nik Wallenda, in Thursday’s official announcement. “And on June 23, I have the great opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of my own by paying homage to that performance as we return for my most exhilarating feat yet. I am beyond excited to be able to walk with my sister, Lijana, as she overcomes near-death injuries and continues the Wallenda tradition of never giving up!”

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