{Photograph} by Sean Zanni/PMC.
There was an air of subdued anticipation on the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine as we waited for Philippe Petit to take the stage. A clarinetist roved by way of the church improvising variations on Gershwin in spurts, making it onerous to inform if the occasion, which was being held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Petit’s stroll between the Twin Towers, had begun. Finally, the lights dimmed and we had been advised to show off our telephones, as even a single lit display screen within the viewers may trigger Petit to fall from his tightrope. Music began, however so quietly that it appeared prefer it was being performed from a cellphone, whereas a candlelit procession made its means down the nave. Massive boards had been arrange, on which footage of the Twin Towers being constructed was projected. A bunch of kid dancers imitated Petit’s stroll alongside the bottom, and had been adopted by an expert whistler. After we had been shuffled by way of this sequence that felt like a carried out model of ADHD, Petit lastly appeared and commenced strolling, first meekly, then shortly, to Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1,” carrying a white jacket laced with gold.
The unique Twin Towers stroll befell on the morning of August 7, 1974, after Petit and a bunch of conspirators broke into the World Commerce Middle whereas it was nonetheless partially underneath development, and used a bow and arrow to span a tightrope between the towers. Petit walked, ran, lay down, and knelt on the wire, 1 / 4 of a mile within the air, as the town regarded on from beneath. It had taken greater than eight months of meticulous planning to hold out the efficiency, together with making a mock-up of the space between the Towers on a discipline in France, learning their engineering, and utilizing varied disguises and pretend IDs to achieve entry to them. These heist-like facets (it’s known as “the coup”) have made it ripe materials for films together with Man on Wire and The Stroll, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit and that includes CGI Twin Towers.
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Three weeks earlier than the efficiency, Petit held a reception in anticipation of the occasion on the eightieth flooring of three World Commerce Middle. I exited the elevator into an area with maybe probably the most spectacular view of New York I’d ever seen. Underneath the affect of the peak and temperature change (it was 100 levels exterior that day), the vista was so spectacular that it was nearly addictive; it was onerous to drag myself away from the home windows, as if the area had been designed to maintain me there, like the inside of a on line casino.
The ground itself was open-plan and riddled with memorabilia from Silverstein Properties, the true property agency owned by Larry Silverstein, which bought the World Commerce Middle six weeks earlier than September 11 and led the positioning’s redevelopment after the assaults. Littered across the area had been newspaper and journal covers in regards to the rebuilding efforts, novelty-size ribbon-cutting scissors and pretend keys, golden trophies and glass awards, posters for company occasions (“Dancing with the Silversteins”), photos of Silverstein’s household, a purple carpet with photographs of runway reveals that had taken place on the ground, artworks that had been made within the constructing’s studios, human-size scale fashions of the buildings, worn-out onerous hats and boots, a full-scale I beam, American flags, emblems that commemorated each time an organization like Uber or Spotify leased area in certainly one of Silverstein’s buildings, the loudspeaker that George Bush used to offer an tackle at Floor Zero, items of Petit’s clothes worn in the course of the stroll, and elements of a set from the present Succession, which apparently had been filmed there.
Outdoors the toilet, a girl sat propped up towards the wall, a sufferer of the warmth, and was attended to by an worker who promised to carry her water. Inside the massive windowless toilet, an older man in white linen was standing on the sinks, scribbling notes on what regarded like a chunk of cardboard and speaking to himself. He would seek the advice of his board, write one thing, then stare grimly, lethal, at himself within the mirror, earlier than trying again at his board and starting his recitation once more. My presence didn’t appear to have an effect on him in any respect.
Again in the principle area, easy jazz performed overhead as champagne and hors d’oeuvres had been served. Forty or fifty individuals circulated round me. Massive, shiny actual property males mingled with ageing artists; one group was speaking loudly, almost screaming, about how they’d simply had lunch at Nobu, whereas one other mentioned the main points of a current actual property enterprise. An hour handed earlier than the French cultural ambassador took to the stage to introduce Petit, whom I acknowledged as the person who had been speaking to himself within the toilet. He thanked the gang, noting that he noticed a whole lot of outdated associates within the viewers. He started pointing to and naming a few of them, inflicting others to boost their palms in hopes of being acknowledged. Clearly he’d forgotten a few of them, as their palms remained within the air, as in the event that they had been determined to be referred to as on to reply a query. He pulled a purple rose out of his pocket and mentioned that he was going to stability it on the tip of his nostril. “It’s all about motion,” he mentioned, earlier than he positioned the flower on his nostril, splayed out his arms, and commenced strolling back and forth. “The wire is rarely nonetheless, however shifting, identical to the buildings.” He moved his palms like a ball juggler.
Fifty years after the unique stroll, watching Petit gesticulate in an air-conditioned room with One World Commerce Middle behind him, it was onerous to not really feel that if the unique occasion had been emblematic of the uncooked, unsupervised downtown New York of the seventies, this occasion completely encapsulated the downtown New York of at present: each side of life contained inside a billion-dollar actual property improvement; a gluttony of high-efficiency glass, Okay-frames, and speculative investments.
After the discuss, I spoke with Barry Greenhouse, who’d labored within the South Tower within the seventies, and had been Petit’s primary contact in getting access to the Twin Towers. Between roasted scallops, he advised me about how he’d first seen Petit acting on the road in Paris, then noticed him sooner or later on the base of the Towers years later. Petit got here and spoke to us briefly, and thanked Greenhouse for coming, earlier than working off to the following group. Even offstage, he speaks and gesticulates shortly, nearly as a type of misdirection. He has a transparent gravitas and command of area, however arrives at that state nearly by the use of a frantic separateness; you get the sense that he isn’t actually there, that he’s shifting ever farther away from you.
Nonetheless, the reminiscence of him that stayed with me was the face I’d seen within the toilet, and that I’d see once more as he walked the tightrope. It’s a face that is sort of a dying masks; gaunt, and stuffed with a specific fear, as if the severity of the conditions he has put himself into through the years has imparted to him a sure darkness. The thought of dying is embedded into all his performances; if you watch him cross the tightrope, half your thoughts is devoted to occupied with him falling. The pleasure you get from watching is the sensation of your thoughts quickly suspending that thought. What if he swayed too far to the aspect, if there was a gust? Within the documentary Man on Wire, when describing the second he shifted his weight from the South Tower to the wire, he says that he thought it was most likely the tip of his life, and that dying was very shut.
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At Saint John the Divine, Petit sat on the fringe of the rope on a steel platform that was fixed to a Gothic column. Satie continued to play as Merlin Whitehawk, a puppeteer, introduced out a large seagull made from wire on what regarded like a fishing pole, a bit meant to re-create a scene that had occurred between Petit and an actual seagull in the course of the unique stroll. Finally Sting took the stage. “If blood will stream when flesh and metal are one,” he sang, as individuals within the flat church seating craned their necks to get a glimpse of him.
Petit walked, ran, lay down on, knelt, and sat on the rope over the following half hour earlier than two faux policemen, wearing unfastened, stripper-like faux uniforms, got here to arrest him, ascending to the rope on a wobbly ladder; a slapstick that highlighted Petit’s specific type of artistry, which at instances borders on vaudeville with out ever totally crossing into it.
Petit picked {the handcuffs} and took the microphone to dispel some rumors in regards to the unique efficiency, together with how lengthy he’d really walked (lower than the initially reported forty-five minutes), and the way lengthy it had taken to plan the coup (months, not years). He apologized to his pal Jean-Louis Blondeau, who he mentioned deserved rather more credit score for planning the unique efficiency, and mentioned that, after strolling between the Towers, he’d turn into too egotistical to share the celebrity with those that had helped him. There was regret in his voice, as if he sensed some finish and felt the necessity to make amends. He left the stage to let Sting and others end the present, solely to come back using again out on his unicycle minutes later. Dressed now in black, he and Sting walked off stage arm in arm, with the remainder of the performers in tow.
I watched the gang depart as some—those that had paid 5 hundred {dollars} for his or her tickets—made their approach to one other personal champagne reception behind the church.
Strolling down Amsterdam Avenue within the mild rain, I felt an intense alienation. Petit was spectacular, however the efficiency was inescapably underwhelming. Simulating an unique occasion that was impactful partially due to its spontaneity and illegality had solely highlighted simply how inconceivable that feat, or something prefer it, could be in New York at present.
The occasion that evening had been replete with recordings of the New York Harbor and sirens (whilst actual sirens may very well be heard exterior), along with the faux policemen and seagull puppet. All this had been finished to evoke the 1974 stroll, however a part of what made that stroll so profound was how ephemeral it was, the way it had invoked the town to an nearly sensational extent: it was the hundreds of people that gathered on the streets beneath that gave it the aura of delusion. In addition to a number of photos, there may be nearly no documentation of Petit’s “coup” in any respect. It’s this absence, not simulations, that reminds us most potently of what’s gone. After 9/11, a great deal of what remained of the towers was offered as scrap steel to China to be melted down and reused; the particles that lined Decrease Manhattan was trucked to the Recent Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Under the nave in Saint John the Divine, within the basement’s crypt subsequent to the kids’s faculty, are fragments of the Twin Towers; beneath that, within the sub-basement, is a spring.
Patrick McGraw is the editor of Heavy Site visitors.
