Gratitude Friday 08 08 25 The Great Le Coup of 1974

I recently ran across a reference to the high walker between the World Trade Center towers, and event I recall from my childhood. Fifty One years ago yesterday, Philippe Petit travesed a wire strung between the Twin Towers, not once but 8 times in 45 minutes. He did not have permission to do what he did. He and is team planned and executed the whole thing surreptitiously. The iconic world trade center was not yet finished; the interior was still being worked on although the shell was complete. He and his team snuck up the equipment, secretly strung the cable between the towers. Petit spent six years planning what he called "le coup" or "the artistic crime of the century." They had to overcome various challenges, including bypassing the towers' security, smuggling in equipment, rigging the wire, and anchoring it securely at both ends, all without being detected. There is a 2008 movie on the whole thing Man on a Wire.

Petit stepped on to the wire suspended 1,350 feet above the ground. The cable was 131 feet long, so the total distance he walked was over 1000. He was arrested by New York’s finest when he stepped off the wire. He was 24-year-old and was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. Petit was taken for psychological evaluation and brought to jail, but he was eventually released. The charges against him were dropped on the condition that he perform for children in a New York City Park. Petit's highwire walk is credited with bringing the Twin Towers much-needed attention and even affection, as they initially had been unpopular and considered an eyesore.

The notion that he could not do it was not in his or his teams thought process. As the towers went up, they began to plan. This article that is part of the 911 Memorial termed it the "the artistic crime of the century." He called it "le coup," and he started to plan it when he was 18 years old. He first thought of it in 1968 when he saw a drawing of the planned towers and it became a life quest. He studied the structure and the wind patterns around it. He visited the site disguised as a journalist, did a mockup in France and assembled his team.

They managed to get all the equipment up, including the 440-pound cable the afternoon of the 6th. Petit and his accomplices arrived at the World Trade Center disguised as construction workers with forged identification cards. Another pair of accomplices posed as office workers, entering the North Tower with a blueprint tube containing a crossbow which they used to shoot a fishing line between the two buildings which was used to pull heavier cables across until they managed to secure the cable between the towers under the cover of darkness. The rest is history.

It is a story I recall seeing on TV and in print media at the time. It captured the world’s imagination and put a spotlight on the world trade center which was being birthed in New York City. America was at the top of the world in 1974. We led the world in most everything. The original trade centers are gone, leaving a mark on America’s soul. Their footprint memorializes the lives of those lost; a new trade tower rises next to these spaces. We are a very different nation 51 years after his feat. Maybe I am just an old guy, but there was an optimism in the highwire walk and across our society. We had a “can do” attitude about just about everything.

Petite did many other highwire walks over the years, including Niagara Falls and the Eifel Tower. He is 75 years old and lives in New York. If he did it now, he would have been charged with a terroristic act, disappeared and deported. We have lost our innocence and optimism as a nation, but we can get it back if we decide to.

I am grateful to have grown up in an era of optimism, a time when an 18-year-old could dream of such an audacious act and spend six years of his life making it a reality. A time when we would not see him as a foreign invader and then drop the charges if he agreed to entertain our children. We owe the next generation something of the possibility of those times and of his walk in air between those long-gone towers. I am grateful for this memory as a nine-year-old. I am grateful to know that we have the capacity of a young Philippe Petit who looked at a picture of a building under construction and set a date with destiny by doing what he did. We have what we had in all of us, at any age if we decide to listen to that part of ourselves and this I am grateful for.

What are you grateful for today?