Do you dare to walk this bridge??
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To the Edge and Back: Grand Canyon Engineering
The Grand CanyonÂ’s much-hyped Skywalk is touted as a million-pound engineering marvel. Last week, the U-shaped and glass-bottomed walkway that rests more than 4,000 feet above the canyon floor was inaugurated. Tomorrow it opens to the general public.
For $25 plus other fees, you can step off the edge of the Grand Canyon and look down to the canyon floor 4,000 feet below, a vantage point more than twice as high as some of the world's tallest buildings.
The Skywalk is the first-ever cantilever-shaped glass walkway to suspend more than 1,220 meters (4,000 feet) above the canyonÂ’s floor and extend 21 meters (70 feet) from the canyonÂ’s rim. Steel-nerved visitors can look down through the horseshoe-shaped glass walkwayÂ’s clear glass to view the spectacular scenery below: the Colorado River Valley. This is Grand Canyon West, 90 miles downstream from Grand Canyon National Park, on land owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe.
Construction crews spent two years building the walkway. Mark Johnson, of Las Vegas-based MRJ Architects, has been working on the Skywalk for about three years, beginning with a lengthy design phase. He and a team of tribal consultants, engineers and geologists moved through several design concepts before settling on a U-shaped walkway. The walkway was structurally engineered by Lochsa Engineering, LLC.
At 1.07 million pounds, the anecdote offered by many is that the Skywalk is "about as heavy as four Boeing 757 jets stacked atop one another." According to Grand Canyon West, the skywalk is able to hold the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes and contains more than one million pounds of steel.
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OMG looks realli scary!
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I doubt you'll walk..Originally posted by bluejuice:OMG looks realli scary!
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saw that on TV the glass bridge .. look down is endless deep vally
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i needa hold someone hands to walk.
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amazing piece of construction
i will walk, provided someone is beside me -
Nice. I'll walk.... depend on the material of the bridge.. If steel maybe yes, if wood, maybe no..
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kk, u pay for me i go.Originally posted by allentyb:amazing piece of construction
i will walk, provided someone is beside me
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scary
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its really something especially if you are suffering from vertico. But one thing that impress me is the creativity and boldness of the designer in creating this bridge.
how I wish some of our designers / artichtects have such creativity when designing our buildings / bridges/ infrastructure.
Thats how some cities are famous for - ingenius / audacious designs. -
i think i heard the cost is quite expensive leh