The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

In Remembrance of Courage and Hope 



Gerstein, Mordicai. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2003.

On the morning of August 7, 1974, before the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City actually opened, New Yorkers walking on the streets below the towers witnessed an amazing sight. With his balancing pole in hand, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit stepped on to a tightrope that he and a few friends had stretched between the towers the night before. A quarter mile above the busy streets of a New York morning, Philippe walked, danced, and even lay down on the wire, as a gathering crowd of astonished New Yorkers looked up. After almost an hour, he stepped off the wire into the waiting hands of the New York City police who arrested him and brought him into court. The judge, after scolding him for endangering himself and others, ordered him to perform his feats for children in the city parks. He was happy to comply.  

Gerstein's Caldecott Medal-winning illustrations convey the courage as well as the playfulness and sheer beauty of this amazing act of human artistry and skill. They, too, are part of the legacy of those once imposing towers.