Watch Daredevils Fly Along the World's Largest Urban Zip Line — and They Had to Shut a Major Highway Down to Do It

Professional thrill-seekers pulled off a first using 1,800 feet of cord and a 700-foot building: They created the world's largest urban zip line and, most importantly, captured the ensuing stunts on video.

Image source: YouTube

TheBlaze got an exclusive interview with the filmmaker, Devin Graham, who said the entire shoot took roughly four months to put together.

"There's never been a zip line done like this in a city before -- when you take over a giantic building and shutting down a major freeway -- so we brought on the right people and they had to do a lot of research to make sure it would be safe," Graham said.

The entire thing was sponsored by Speed Stick; Graham said the company was looking to create a high-intensity video and when they made the offer, he couldn't refuse.

Image source: YouTube

"They said, 'what would you do if you could do anything you haven't been able to do on your own?' and so I thought about that and took it to my stunt guys and asked them what they'd like to do if they had the budget to do whatever they could think of," Graham said.

The consensus: base-jumping via zip line off a huge building.

Image source: YouTube

Image source: YouTube

The crew, part of Fullscreen's network, had initially hoped to film in the U.S., but couldn't find an area where the logistics would work. Panama City allowed the team to shut down one of the major highways that crossed underneath the line.

"I brought in my safety guys, as far as the guys who do similar kind of stuff, so we made sure everything was safe and we wouldn't have any surprises," Graham said.

Image source: YouTube

The filmmaker admitted they did have a few safety hurdles to cross: the first day they were supposed to shoot, the winds were simply too high to allow people to ride the zip line, and when they initially tested it, the line was way too long for a safe slide -- the crew had to work all night to shorten and tighten it before the stunt could be carried out safely.

But they made it happen, he said, and then captured all the adrenaline-filled moments on high-definition video. Check it out below.

There is also a behind-the-scenes video you can watch to see how the stunt was pulled off.

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