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Scheduled to open to the public next week, the Grand Canyon Skywalk juts improbably from the Canyon’s lip, reaching 70 feet out into the void. (Well, it’s not exactly a void, but being that it would take 15 seconds to fall from the Skywalk to the Canyon floor 4,000 feet below, it may as well be.) Commissioned by the Hualapai Indian tribe, Skywalk is that rare Indian attraction that’s not gambling-related — unless you consider braving the 90-mph winds that whip upward from the Canyon gambling with your life. No other bridge in the world withstands that kind of force, though this transparent feat of engineering is designed to safely sustain the weight 700 hefty men at a time. If peering over a 400-story drop isn’t pants-peeingly scary enough for you, the tribe has plans to ferry visitors along the bottom of the walk in a modified maintenance car. Nooooo, thank you — not on this blogger’s itinerary.
I would love to see this an try to walk the skywalk (though I have a feeling I would have to be medicated and diapered first)!
posted by Jane on 3-21-2007 at 10:12 am
I am terribly afraid of heights — such as walking on bridges near the edge, even when there is a railing. However, I could handle being on the top of the ES Building and the WTC in NYC because they had fences that were higher than me.
If the wall/fence/railing comes up to my waist or lower — it appears so on this GC walkway — then you will not get me on the walkway.
I am afraid of tumbling over. Yeah, I know, it won’t happen. My head isn’t that big! LOL … But that’s the psychological “thing” in my head — that I will get near the rail and tumble right over.
Same reason I won’t sit in balconies in theaters or stadia (spell check demands stadiums!) … I could fall over the railing.
If the rail was chest high, I might feel better.
So, doctor, do you think you can cure me?
posted by WizardBoy on 3-21-2007 at 10:30 am
Good thing the floor is glass. Easier to clean up the pee and poop.
I’m waiting for the bungee ride and the water slide.
I could never get on the walk. I’d have a hard time getting on the mule for the ride down, ala The Brady Bunch!
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 3-21-2007 at 10:53 am
oooh…a waterslide into the canyon now that would be awesome!!
posted by albert on 3-21-2007 at 1:06 pm
They should sell it as an amusment ride.
Here’s how it works: You chase a smug bird out onto the walk. When you get out to the middle of the ‘ride’, you look down and notice that nothing is beneath your feet. You hold up a sign on a stick that says, “YIKES!!!” Then a whistling sound occurs as you fall, creating a small puff of dust on the canyon floor and a silhouette shaped hole in the ground.
It could be called the Wile E. Coyote Experience and be sponsored by Acme.
posted by n2y2 on 3-21-2007 at 3:39 pm
OMG I am *terrified* of heights. Just looking at that photo makes me want to cry.
posted by kellie on 3-21-2007 at 4:22 pm
Anything for the tourist dollar, including desecrating one of nature’s most incredible places. Sickening.
posted by Steve on 3-22-2007 at 8:45 am