NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario -- Daredevil Nik Wallenda has become the first person to walk on a tightrope 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of roaring Niagara Falls.

A tethered Wallenda accomplished the feat Friday night, which he says he got through by "a lot of praying." He also credited his concentration, focus and training.

Near the end, he knelt on one knee and waved and blew a kiss to the crowds. "Let's go, Nik!" they shouted.

The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted. Other daredevils have wire-walked over the Niagara River but farther downstream and not since 1896.

An estimated crowd of 125,000 people on the Canadian side and 4,000 on the American side watched Wallenda's stunt. He hugged his uncle upon setting foot on solid ground again.

ABC televised the walk and insisted Wallenda use a tether to keep him from falling in the river. Wallenda said he agreed to the tether because he wasn't willing to lose the chance and needed ABC's sponsorship to help offset some of the $1.3 million cost of the spectacle.

Wallenda began his walk from Terrapin Point on the U.S. side of the falls and emerged 34 minutes later through a cloud of mist on the Canadian side, to howls and cheers from hundreds of people who had lined the streets for hours.

Hundreds of tiny flashes from cameras on the U.S. side began blinking as Wallenda stepped onto the cable and began making his way gingerly across. As he approached the midway point, Wallenda's balancing pole rocked side to side, a sign of the strong winds created by the falls' power.

"Oh, my gosh, it's an unbelievable view," an utterly calm-sounding Wallenda said as he walked over the edge of the falls. "I am so blessed to be in the position I am -- to be the first person in the world to be where I am."

"This is what dreams are made of, people," Wallenda said. He took steady, measured steps amid the rushing mist over the falls. Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud.

For the 33-year-old father of three, the Niagara Falls walk is unlike anything he's ever done. Because it's over water, the 2-inch wire doesn't have the usual stabilizer cables to keep it from swinging. Pendulum anchors are designed to keep it from twisting under the elkskin-soled shoes designed by his mother.

An ABC meteorologist said instruments picked up a 14mph wind gust along the wire ahead of him.

The Wallendas trace their roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists. The clan has been touched by tragedy, notably in 1978 when patriarch Karl Wallenda, Nik's great-grandfather, fell to his death in Puerto Rico.

About a dozen other tightrope artists have crossed the Niagara Gorge downstream, dating to Jean Francois Gravelet, aka The Great Blondin, in 1859. But no one had walked directly over the falls, and authorities hadn't allowed any tightrope acts in the area since 1896. It took Wallenda two years to persuade U.S. and Canadian authorities to allow it, and many civic leaders hoped to use the publicity to jumpstart the region's struggling economy, particularly on the U.S. side of the falls.

A festive crowd gathered on both sides of the border to watch Wallenda, spreading blankets and setting up folding chairs under picture-perfect blue skies.

Meanwhile, Wallenda says he already is envisioning his next feat: a walk over the Grand Canyon.

-- The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report