# Climb the WTC (from outside) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333 "2001-09-18T04:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/1 "2001-09-18T04:47:27Z")
Has anyone done this? I am assuming it must have been done. We in Chicago, have had people climb the Sears Tower in Chicago from the outside. I can’t find anything in Google. Maybe it is too far down. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/2 "2001-09-18T04:54:51Z")
Oh, yeah! Alain Robert, the “real-life Spiderman” climbed it (he also did the Sears Tower, apparently). But the city gave him the punishment he deserved! We fined him a whole $.10 per floor! A buck ten! There was also a guy who actually walked a tightrope between the towers, and a BASE jumper who went off the observation deck just a few years ago. Guiliani tried to work up a lather over that one, but even he didn’t have the heart. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/3 "2001-09-18T05:06:05Z")
The parachute thread just got me wondering about this? Could people have climbed down? Obviously no but how about an untrained person if there was no crash. Would this be something out of an average person’s ablility. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/4 "2001-09-18T05:07:53Z")
Did I hear correct that the CIA or FBI needs Arabic speakers? I know six people that run our coffee bar they all speak it? They speak English well too. Is there a shortage of people who speak it or is the shortage that they need to be trained and speak it? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/5 "2001-09-18T07:36:09Z")
The guy who climbed it did so with the use of a window washer’s harness designed specifically for the Twin Towers. He demonstrated it on Carson a few days later. And many people have (or had) base jumped it. But the french guy who walked across it on a tightrope! That was incredible! The Twin Towers, sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/6 "2001-09-18T11:52:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hail Ants \* > The guy who climbed it did so with the use of a window washer’s harness designed specifically for the Twin Towers. [George Willig](http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/1097/9710outforgot.html). > [@](#): > > But the french guy who walked across it on a tightrope! Philipe Petit. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/7 "2001-09-18T13:51:00Z")
I was about to say the Great Wallenda died while walking between the towers, but google says he didn’t. I know he died in a fall during a tightrope walk, though. Hmmm. The parachute thread made me imagine scenarios in which peope in the upper stories (above the fires) could have survived. Here’s all I came up with: You’re a BASE jumper. But BASE jumpers don’t take their equipment to work with them. Okay, so you ordered a new parachute from an e-tailer and had it delivered to work because there’s no secure delivery at your apartment in Queens. You had just received it from the FedEx man when the plane hit… ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climb-the-wtc-from-outside/82333/8 "2001-09-18T15:32:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I was about to say the Great Wallenda died while walking between the towers, but google says he didn’t. I know he died in a fall during a tightrope walk, though. Hmmm. From the New York Times website: > [@](#): > > In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.