9/11 anniversary: Philippe Petit, man who walked high-wire between Twin Towers, reflects on how the terror attacks changed his view of the buildings

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Philippe Petit’s legacy will forever be linked to the Twin Towers; the buildings the aerialist walked a high-wire between. “I would call them ‘my towers’ because I was – day and night – learning from them and getting information and blueprints and articles to get to know the towers,” he told Inside Edition. “After all those years and months of studying them for my illegal walk, of course they were ‘my towers’ and that’s how my friends would refer to them.” Petit successfully got a wire between the structures on the 7 August that year and walked between them eight times. “So from that day I will stop saying ‘my towers’ — I will say ‘our towers.’” Petit adds that he’s often asked how he felt watching the towers collapse: “How can I answer that question when on the other side of that event you have thousands of lives that were lost?