Imagine walking out over the Grand Canyon and staring 4,000 feet down into the Colorado River — while standing on four inches of glass…
Businessman David Jin developed the idea of a glass walkway over the Grand Canyon nine years ago. The Skywalk at Grand Canyon West is open to the public now.
A private developer from Las Vegas built the $US40 million ($A50.11 million) horseshoe-shaped walkway, called the Skywalk, with the permission of the Hualapai tribe, whose ancestral lands abut the southwest rim of the canyon in Arizona.
The steel pathway, which is paved with 90 tons of toughened glass, is cantilevered 21 metres out over the lip to give steel-nerved visitors a dizzying glimpse of the Colorado River Valley nearly 1.6 km below.
The project has stirred controversy on the Hualapai Reservation, where backers say it will create valuable jobs but opponents condemn it as a desecration of a sacred landscape.
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The first wave of media visitors walk out onto the Skywalk at Grand Canyon West following the opening ceremony on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Arizona, 20 March 2007. The USD 30 million glass-bottomed walkway juts out 70 feet from the rim at an evelation of 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. The Hualapai tribe hopes this one-of-a-kind attraction will lure tourists to the remote area approximiately 2.5 hours from Las Vegas by car. AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK
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