Cameron , Arizona ( CNN ) -- His high-wire walk did n't start well . Perched on a 2-inch-thick metal cable , 1,500 feet in the air , daredevil Nik Wallenda spat on his hands and wiped the soles of his moccasins . `` These shoes feel slippery . There 's dust on this cable , '' the lifelong tightrope walker said Sunday as he was just beginning his quarter-mile trek across the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon without the aid of a safety tether . But an agonizing and an anxiety-filled 22 minutes and 54 seconds later , Wallenda had crossed to the other side , running the final steps to become the first person to traverse the gorge near Grand Canyon Park in Arizona . The wind was worse than he anticipated , he said at one point . And twice he stopped , knelt and regained his composure . `` I was fatigued until I was three-quarters of the way across , and then it was all adrenaline , '' he said . The feat was watched by a worldwide audience , according to the Discovery Channel , which televised the event in the United States . At the end , the seventh-generation aerialist threw down his balancing pole , kissed the ground and hugged his wife and three children . `` I can finally breathe again , '' Erendira Wallenda said . When asked how he planned to celebrate his successful walk , Wallenda mentioned eating a rib-eye steak . He is a member of the famous Flying Wallendas , founded by his grandfather Karl in the 1920s . But the family 's circus roots go back further than that , Nik said . `` My family has done this for seven generations and 200 years , and I 'm carrying on a legacy . This is something I 've done since I was 2 years old , and it truly is my passion . '' Daredevil completes walk across Niagara Falls . Wallenda skywalks over Florida highway .
Van Wallenda ran across a wire 1,500 feet above a river in Arizona . He said the wind was worse than he expected . Without safety equipment , he made the quarter - mile run with just a balancing pole . When asked how he planned to eat , he said eating a nice steak .