Grand Canyon Skywalk
The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a visitor attraction in the amusement park Grand Canyon West Hualapai Indians outside the Grand Canyon National Park, which opened on 20 March 2007. There is a projecting beyond the rim of the canyon platform of steel beams with applied glass bottom plates and glassy railing. The first steps were the former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and a group of Hualapai Indians dare. Since 28 March 2007, the platform for the public is available. The construction took four years.
The Skywalk offers the possibility of projecting on a 22 meters above the abyss, horseshoe- shaped balcony through the glass floor to admire the Grand Canyon. The platform is located on a side of the canyon. The 1100 meters below the Colorado River in the main valley is in view, however, about two kilometers away. The height of the Skywalk above the bottom of the page canyons is significantly lower. The vertically below the visible through the glass floor rocks are from 150 to 240 meters below the Skywalkboden.
The Skywalk is located on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. To reach it, about ten miles are back down on a gravel road. A tribal committee had the investor David Jin of Las Vegas granted permission to build the 30 million -US-dollar tourist attraction in their reserve. The investor 's percentage involved in box office receipts, but the Skywalk is owned by the Hualapai tribe. The revenues of the first years allowed the construction of a cultural center of the Hualapai in Peach Springs. The hope of a fall in unemployment has not been met. Among the Indians of the construction project is controversial because, in the opinion of the opponents of the sacred mountain will desecrated it.
The floor of the terrace consists of seven centimeters thick anti-reflective fünfschichtigem special glass that came from the company Kinon in Cologne. The glass of the parapet is from the Berlin company " glass Döring ". The structure weighs 482 tons. It should withstand peak wind speeds of 160 km / hr. On the " balcony " may reside 120 people at the same time. Each visitor must take a special Filzschutz about the shoes, which scratching the glass bottom must be prevented. On the Skywalk photography is prohibited. Cameras and mobile phones, but also handbags and backpacks must be stored in a locker.
Originally Jin were provided to the people of the Hualapai the construction of a hotel and a tourist center next to the " balcony " in the contract of the investor. The hotel was never started, stopped the construction of the visitor center at the stage of the shell. After years of wrangling between the Hualapai Tribal Council and Jin all contracts announced without notice in a controversial decision in March 2012 and decided on the confiscation of the share of the investor in return for compensation of $ 9,000,000. This decision was hit several times in the tribal and withdrawn, two members of the tribal council were suspended. The investor is challenging the decision of the Tribal Council.
2011, the glass panels ( solar Rioglass ) were exchanged, the cost amounted to 1.5 million dollars. This time has a renewable protective film on the glass plates integrated to reduce the cost. With around 1.5 million visitors since its opening and sand the first glass discs were scratched.
After the investor Jin has been awarded beginning in March 2013 in the first instance $ 28 million, the Hualapai company Sa ' Nyu Wa filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. At the same time an appeal has been announced. The operation of the Skywalk is under the responsibility of another company on first.