The First WTC Terrorist

In light of today's 7 year anniversary of 9/11 i wanted to offer my own memorial/retrospective. 

The skinny young Frenchman in the black and white photo above was the very first World Trade Center terrorist.  His name is Philippe Petit.

On a windy day on August 7, 1974 Petit committed what he called the "artistic crime of the century" by illegally performing a high-wire walk between the two WTC towers.  He spent years practicing and preparing for the stunt, taking part in undercover espionage to develop plans for breaking in to the buildings, setting up equipment, and coordinating a team of "inside men" recruited to assist in the "artistic terrorism."  Standing 110 stories above downtown Manhattan he walked the 140' gap between the two towers on a steel cable that he had rigged with his team during the cover of night.  He walked back and forth across the cable evading the cops who were waiting for him on both ends.

I recently watched the documentary about Petit's stunt, called Man on Wire.  It is one of the most inspirational documentaries i've ever seen.  To watch this man chase down a dream with such fervor and determination - a dream that even his closest friends thought was sheer folly, sheer suicide, sheer madness -is an experience that can only be described as humbling.  Petit is shown as a desperate genius, a wild-eyed idealist.  He is a revolutionary in the greatest tradition.  For him, the concrete world is not a given it's an opportunity.  Architecture is not just a structure of pragmatism it's a playground, a theatre.  Actions of amazing magnitude need no explanation at all.  When, at the end of the film, a handcuffed Petit is asked by a reporter why he did this he poignantly answers, "there is no why."  Indeed.  To live your life on a tightrope is to move beyond explanations, to move beyond reason, to simply move.