How cool is this? An Indian tribe building a Grand Canyon resort is including a 70’ long glass skywalk that will jut out from the canyon wall, 4000’ over the Colorado River. (I got it from the Urban Legends web site, which declares this to be true, not a legend.)
Check out the photo and description. The walkway and sides are going to be 4 inch glass and the superstructure will be 1-million pounds of steel, engineered to absorb vibrations and withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake 50 miles away or 100 mph winds.
Would you walk out on it?
At least once. It reminds me of the glass floor section of the CN Tower’s observation deck.
You end up looking a 1000 feet straight down.
It’s a hoot—especially when you can feel a slight sway in the building.
Spare “a”. Ugh.
Walk on it, yes. Help build it—no.
Heck no!
Simultaneous acrophobia et agoraphobia … can they fill it with water too?
Sounds cool, actually!
Why?
The view is just fine from solid ground.
No, but I’d happily establish and operate an underwear kiosk adjacent to the exit door.
A friend of mine visited the GC with her family last June. They took the mule ride down from an Indian reservation. As they were getting onboard their ride, her mule decided the sooner he started the sooner he finished and left ahead of schedule. The Indian called out “He knows the way,” and made no move to stop him. She couldn’t stop him either.
Some hours later she was reunited with her family down at the bottom, after a solo trip down the canyon during which she sang to keep from panicing, and endured a thunderstorm. Her daughter was frantic by the time they were reunited.
If this is an example of the attitude on the reservation, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of confidence in Indian engineering.
I’d caution against extrapolating an isolated anecdote to be representative of a whole community of people. I know I wouldn’t want to be judged by the nasty guy who works at the counter of the local convenience store.
My guess is that the skywalk isn’t being designed in the dirt outside a teepee, but by nice MIT or Purdue-trained engineers at very big architectural firms who have experience with this sort of thing.
That also brings to mind a special I saw a few years back – where the American Indians living in that area (the school may have actually been at the bottom of the canyon somewhere – but my memory escapes me on this) have a computer engineering school that’s considered one of the best in the country … so that I’m sure the project would be run by fully capable personnel within that tribe, or its nation even. (Incidentally, I just got a book I saw reviewed by its author Joseph M. Marshall on CSPAN – called “The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History”. He is a wonderful orator with many inspiring stories and historical accounts to share – and I was particularly struck by his description of the earned-respect, democratic-based leadership dynamic practised by the Lakota and Dakota peoples. I know this is off the subject at hand, but FYI … thank you).
Yeah, Dom, you’re being logical and pc, and I’m being offensive to indigenous people or something, I suppose, and need to clean up my comments or you’ll tell me to get lost.
Have you ever been on an Indian reservation? They tolerate the white folks because the white folks bring cash, but don’t expect them to be your bosom buddy. It’s usually wise to recognize the parameters of social intercourse before you get involved in it.
I’ll skip the walkway next time I visit the GC, but I’d be willing to bet it will be crowded.
“Would you walk out on it?”
Honestly, my first reaction was, “Only with a barf bag and smelling salts.” Perhaps Irish Spectre could stock those as well…?
I’ve just gotten a lot less adventurous, I guess.
Carrie,
I didn’t say anything about being offensive to Indians or being PC. But you took one incident and whitewashed the whole group of people—it doesn’t matter whether they were white, black, red or purple—with it. It’s a little ridiculous to think that because one lone employee of an individual mule train guide service was incompetent that would make you doubt the competency of anything the community does.
Like I said, do you want any effort by someone in Cleveland judged by the least competent member of the community? I’m just suggesting you use some critical thinking and, yes, logic, before posting statements like that.
I have to add my two cents here. Last year my brother in law went to West Virginia to attend a friend’s wedding. About three or four local guys made rude and threatening remarks to him in a restaurant parking lot because my sister in law is white. Although it was frightening experience my brother in law doesn’t judge all of rural West Virginia by the poor example of these men. Also, I’ve actually spent a vacation at the Cherokee Indian reservation and had a great time. I didn’t patronize the people there and they treated me kindly. Just something to ponder10-27 03:22:10
I’ve visited the Wounded Knee Reservation, a reservation in Montana, and a reservation in Oregon. I’ll stick with what I’ve said. My impressions were not positive in any of these three experiences. My friend’s experience rather confirmed my own. I wasn’t patronizing in any of these instances.
When I was in the tourist area, I was treated courteously as a paying tourist. When I moved away from the tourist area, the climate changed significantly.
My daughter took part in a video-conferencing project in chemistry when she was an undergraduate that involved a virtual classroom hookup with an Indian reservation. Her experience was positive.
As a rational person, yes, of course; I used to be a structural engineer and I trust members of the profession to know what they’re doing. As an irrational person with a certain amount of acrophobia…well…
I’d walk out on it. And then I’d probably hyperventilate and end up crawling back on my hands and knees.