Those little towers are to give you a scale as to how high this thing will be. Can you flipping believe it ? Gorram!
The $30 million all-glass Skywalk will hover 4,000 feet above the Colorado River over a rim of the Grand Canyon, allowing tourists to stroll on an 80-yard walk around a semicircular platform jutting beyond the canyon rim, surrounded by Plexiglas that will provide a spectacular view of the canyon floor directly below. Construction began March of 2004 and is estimated to be completed by early 2006. In May 2005, the final test was conducted and the stucture passed engineering requirements by 400 percent, enabling it to withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes (more that 71 million pounds). The bridge will be able to sustain winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from 8 different directions, as well as an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. More than one million pounds of steel will go into the construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk. The Skywalk's opening is planned for early 2006, the attraction being part of a new Grand Canyon West resort on the Hualapai reservation at the western edge of the park, about 120 miles from Las Vegas.
Ok, did I mention that you couldn't drug me heavily enough to get me on that thing? You couldn't pay me enough either.
NOW I will go to the Grand Canyon!!
ReplyDeleteOh. No. Way. It looks cool but there is no way I'd ever go on that. Me and heights don't get along too well. And to me this thing looks like a nightmare come true.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree....Vertigo City right there.
ReplyDeleteI hate heights, but in the interest of expanding my experiences...im on it.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry AoM you can hang out on terra firma while the kids (ok, maybe not Pickle) and I go for a walk over the Grand Canyon.
ReplyDeleteBunch'a Wimps!!
ReplyDeleteand someone has already thought how cool it would be to have sex on that thing.
ReplyDeleteI swear, some people minds are so twisted.
*looking around* oh..
That might be fun, but I could never get AoM near the Skywalk to begin with!
ReplyDeleteI was in Africa sitting with my legs dangling off a flat protrusion of a granite cliff, basically suspended in space over a 500 foot drop. The others were pleading with me to get back from the edge, but I told them to be quiet. I was looking over hundreds of square miles of savanna dotted with bulging granite hills. On a narrow river ten miles away a herd of zebra were getting a drink. A large bird of prey of some sort was circling below me. It was an amazing moment. Breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteI am SO there at the Skywalk in 2006 or 7.
Who's coming along?
Uzz - I cannot see you going on that thing.
ReplyDeleteDonna, Jenny and NDT - you and I can stand over to the side and use our telefoto lens to take pictures of the idiots before they plunge to their deaths.
Cashin and Gadfly - I expect that out of you guys.
AoD - over my dead body will take my two precious little ones onto the ledge of death.
Chad - something ironic in the gay guy calling me a wimp. ;)
Kristine - promises of sex were the only way AoD could get me to contemplate going out on the ledge. I believe it also involved Nathan Fillion, Antonio Banderas and AoD out there with me, but I could be mistaken.