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| Erosion by the Colorado River helped create the Grand Canyon |
The Grand Canyon is situated entirely in Arizona. It is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Find out about it on
http://kidcyber.com.au/topics/wonderlists.htm
The Skywalk opened in March 2007. It is a glass walkway that juts out over the edge of the Canyon on its western rim. It is 4000 feet or about 1400 m above the floor of the Canyon!
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| Skywalk juts out over the Canyon rim |
Skywalk is owned by the Hualapai tribe of American Indians. Their Reservation of about 1 million square feet takes in the western rim, and they own about one third of the Grand Canyon. Engineers checked the western rim and chose the location. Huge steel beams were sunk about 46 metres into the rock. The large, massively thick glass plates that make up the floor were made in Belgium. When all the sections were complete and had been delivered up the mountain to the top of the Canyon, it took just a few days to complete the structure. The buildings around Skywalk are still being finished, and much more is planned, such as restaurants and hotels. Visitors buy a ticket, and are taken by shuttle bus, a ride of just 5 minutes or so, to Eagle Point. Only 120 people at a time are allowed onto Skywalk, and each is given cloth slippers to put over their shoes just before they walk out there to protect the glass from being scratched. There are glass walls around the walk, high enough to protect people from high winds. To protect the glass floor, people are not allowed to take cameras or cell phones onto Skywalk. To get to the admission point, people can go by small plane or helicopter from Las Vegas or Kingman, or can drive from Kingman. However, the last 32 km (20 miles) before you enter Hualapai land is unmade road-and it is the only road in!
It is quite scary walking on the glass floor, even though you know that it is designed to withstand an earthquake of up to 9 on the Richter scale, and could support the weight of 11 or so fully fuelled and loaded jumbo jets! To step onto a floor through which you can see rocks 4000 feet below is strange, and there were some people who became quite anxious, especially when others jumped up and down!
People are not allowed to bring cameras in the Skywalk because the glasses are easily scratched. They cost around $250,000 each.
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Thanks Michael, I understand that, and I should have made it clear in my blog. I merely stated the fact without explanation, and I will amend the blog to add that. However, I did find it disappointing that the gift shop does not sell photos of what you see out on Skywalk..the photos I would taken had I had my camera with me. They charge a lot of money for a print of a photo of you taken by the organisation's own photographers out there, but I would have liked the additional souvenir of photos that show my family and friends what I saw while I was out there.
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