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Wallenda aims to cross Tallulah Falls with great-grandfather's image
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Nik Wallenda walks on a tightrope uphill at a 19-degree angle from the Marina City west tower across the Chicago River to the top of the Leo Burnett Building on Nov. 2 in Chicago. Wallenda wants to recreate this summer the walk his great-grandfather Karl completed in 1970 across a 1,000-foot cable 750 feet above Tallulah Falls. - photo by Paul Beaty
The image of Karl Wallenda crossing the Tallulah Gorge is still vivid for those who witnessed it on July 18, 1970. Wallenda arrived in the Northeast Georgia mountains with a couple of security guards dressed as clowns with red noses and face paint, but he loved to interact with townspeople and the thousands of spectators who showed up to watch the feat, recalls the Rev. James Turpen, 77. Turpen, who has been pastor of Tallulah Falls United Methodist Church for the past five decades, gave the invocation for Wallenda before his walk.