Could you walk on this?

[Donna D.]

Could you walk this!!!




Grand Canyon Skywalk

Scheduled to open Jan. 1, 2006 Hualapai Indian Reservation
* Juts about 70 feet into the canyon, 4000 ft above Colorado River
* Will accommodate 120 people comfortably (how comfortable would you be)
* Built with more than a million pounds of steel beams, and includes dampeners that minimize the structure's vibration
* Designed to hold 72 million pounds, withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake 50 miles away, and withstand winds in excess of 100 mph
* The walkway has a glass bottom and sides...four inches thick
More info:
August 26, 2005—Fear of heights? This is definitely no place for you.
The all-glass, balcony-like "Skywalk"--shown in an illustration released this week--will extend over the edge of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above the Colorado River.
"The Skywalk will be an attraction unlike any other in the world," said Sheri Yellowhawk, CEO of the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation. The company is building the bridge in the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the south rim of the canyon.
The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public in January 2006 as part of a new resort on the reservation. The resort, known as Grand Canyon West, is to include a re-created Indian village and a restaurant perched on the edge of the canyon. Tourism is the reservation's biggest source of income.
Grand Canyon West will be on the western edge of Grand Canyon National Park, about 120 miles (about 200 kilometers) from Las Vegas. But perhaps not even the Las Vegas Strip's over-the-top attractions will be a match for this glass-bottom walkway over the world's biggest gorge.

For confirmation Urban Legends:

[Roger H]

Yeah... the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the most incredible piece of enginieering to date too, as was the Titanic... and what was the hotel with the skywalks that fell during a big reception? Need I go on?

I think I'll let someone else try it out for a while before I go strolling out into thin air.

I thought only pirates made people walk the plank!

Roger

[jack maloney]

In an odd way, it's reassuring to see that when it comes to making a few bucks, our Native American friends are as disrespectful of nature as the rest of us. Looks like the Grand Canyon on Viagra. Phooey! 2

[Bill Abbay]

My second cousin knows a guy whose ex-brother-in-law's sister knows the uncle of the engineer who designed this. The engineer says it was designed for only 118.3 people.

He suggested it would be prudent if folks walking out on the thing could rent parachutes, but the resort owner thought that would be tacky and slightly off-putting.

Or so I heard...

[Chester Taje]

Not for me

except for the lack of privacy, a convenient place to go potty

[Joe MacDonald]

C'mon Ches it would be like riding a bucket down.

[Dan Quinn]

not on my life would i get on that ...

[MyronL]

Not a problem. Hey, the fall wouldn't kill you ...no way.

..........................It's the sudden stop.

[Lew King]

I think i'd not like that too much
I know that I want my feet on
Terra Firma
The more firma the less terra

[Time K]

Internet Hoax? Or has this been confirmed?

[Time K]

Ooops I just read Donna's link.....but I am left wondering about the engineering of the project. From the artist's rendering it does not look possible unless the structure is under fake rock.

[Bill Abbay]

Nope, appears to be legit. See Donna's link at the bottom of her first message.
My post could be a hoax, but not Donna's.

[Bill Abbay]

I guess what bothers me most about stuff like this, 21st Century engineering expertise notwithstanding, is the Southwest is littered with huge monolithic monuments and cliffs of all kinds ... and at the bottom of every one of them is a humungous rubble pile. Now, we can figure the "rubble" pile used to be the cliff, so .....

[Gina D.]

a convenient place to go potty 22.gif

It DOES look like the Jolly Green Giants toilet seat.

Fortunately, I hear he doesn't hang out in desert landscapes.

Uhm, Nope, I will stay in the bar, thanks.

[Will M.]

This reminds me of the glass floor at the CN Tower in Toronto. The first step onto the floor is a little unsettling but you get used to it very quickly. That having been said, the glass floor at the tower is up 1122 feet, not 3800 feet. I think I will skip the side trip to this new attraction when I am in Lost Wages next spring.

CN Tower Glass Floor

[Frederick L. Simson]

I'm game. I also have been on the roller-coaster on the outside of the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas.

[Andrew Gibbens]

Only 120 people? That's just a child's toy, surely?

Some bright spark decided that the roof of the National Glass Centre (museum) in Sunderland, UK should be made of 6cm (2.4") thick glass and it can hold 4600 people!

Decently, for those of us that suffer from vertigo, many of the glass blocks are opaque. I'm sorry that the only roof photo is a poor one in the interactive tour.

But I suppose in the "mine's bigger than yours" stakes, a 4000ft drop outranks a mere 60ft.

Andrew

[Donald Stahl]

Made by indians just for the white man. Hmmm, remember what happened at the Little Big Horn? Makes one wonder. And what about that $25.00 per charge to do the walk, does that go toward the interment cost? Gads, is this an ambush??

[pjanits]

I just about died driving out the east gate at Yellowstone, this attraction (?)