On this day in 1974, just past 7 a.m., Frenchman Philippe Petit (1949–) extended a high wire between the not-yet-completed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and walked across—no net, no permission, no fear.

He planned six years for this moment.

"A crossing," Petit called it. "The pilgrimage of a mortal and a mortal pilgrimage. A mythological journey."

For 45 minutes, he moved back and forth along the 140-foot gap, pausing once to sit and take it all in. "I could hear the horns of the cars below me. I could hear the applause, too. The rumeur (clamor) of the crowd rose up to me from 400 meters below."

Then the rain came, and he ended his dance with a passionate run—what he called "the laughter of the wire walker"—into the waiting arms of the NYPD.

His punishment? A free performance in Central Park the following weekend.

Nearly 30 years later, Petit mourned the tragedy of 9/11. In his heart, the towers still stand. "It was my pride as a poet and a lover of beautiful things to show as many people as possible the audacity of those impossible monoliths."

"In a very small way I helped frame (the towers) with glory," he said. "And I want to remember them in their glory."