From the July 5, 2005 edition of the Niagara Falls Review:
NIAGARA FALLS – The waiting game continues for famed wirewalker Jay Cochrane’s date with the Skylon Tower.
Cochrane, 61, is still fine-tuning his cable for the highly-anticipated walk, which was originally planned for July 1. It was pushed back to Monday, but over the long weekend Cochrane decided he still wasn’t ready.
A casino spokesman said the delay is due to the complexities of the support cables, which are winding through trees and other obstacles down below.
The 609-metre walk will being on the roof of the Niagara Fallsview Casino hotel and end at the top of the Skylon Tower. Unlike most of Cochrane’s walks, this one is on a steep incline, beginning at 133 meters high and ending at 200 meters. It will be the longest and highest wirewalk ever attempted in Canada.
Cochrane is expected to perform the walk 10 times this summer.
No date has been rescheduled for the first attempt.
The Skylon walk is just part of Cochrane’s heavy workload this summer. He also performs twice daily walks from the Niagara Fallsview Casino to the Hilton Hotel, 133 meters above Fallsview Boulevard.
Cochrane has a reputation as a perfectionist who oversees every detail of his act ever since a poorly-constructed tower in 1965 caused him to fall 90 feet onto a concrete floor.
His 1995 walk across the Qutang Gorge in China is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest at 700 meters.