A U-shaped walkway made of steel and
three-inch-thick, heat-strengthened glass suspended above the Grand
Canyon on the Hualapai Reservation in western Arizona opened for
business March 28.
The $30 million
Skywalk juts out 70 feet beyond the canyon's rim where visitors can
look down, if they dare, through a glass floor to the Colorado
River 4,000 feet below.
The structure's
dimensions defy comprehension: it is half the length of a football
field, weighs two million pounds and can withstand the weight of 71
fully loaded 747s (a total weight of 71 million pounds), winds over
100 mph or an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude.
However, no more
than 120 visitors are permitted on the Skywalk at a
time.
All visitors are
issued booties to avoid scratching and slipping; the booties are
numbered and may be kept by visitors as a souvenir.
The Skywalk was
the brainchild of the Hualapai Indians whose 2,000 members live
near the structure. Tribal elders are hopeful that the success of
the Skywalk as a tourist attraction will be a means of economic
survival for the tribe, according to the tribe's chief Don
Havatone.
The tribe owns
close to 1 million acres of land throughout the Grand Canyon's
western rim.
Located at Grand
Canyon West's Eagle Point, guests enter and exit the Skywalk via
temporary buildings while a visitors center is being
completed.
The center will
open later this year and will include a museum, a movie theater, a
VIP lounge and gift shop, and facilities for meetings, special
events and weddings. The Skywalk Cafe will feature an outdoor patio
and rooftop dining on the edge of the canyon.
Admission to the
Skywalk is $25 per person in addition to a $49.95 Grand Canyon West
entrance package; the Skywalk is open seven days a week from dawn
to dusk.
For details,
visit www.grandcanyonskywalk.com.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Gay Nagle Myers at [email protected].