Saturday, March 24, 2007

Grand Canyon Skywalk

All of us, I am sure, can never cease to be amazed at what collective human endeavour can produce.

Whether it is a complex symphony, or an engineering marvel. Whether it is a key hole surgery, or an open-source operating system.

I am writing this after hearing, and reading, about the opening of the Grand Canyon's new Horse Shoe structure, made for visitors to this marvelous place in the Arizona State of United States.




Engineers, we are told, have drilled holes into the Canyon's rocky body to support this structure that protrudes 20 metres into open air. And this very-heavy, firmly-entrenched structure, has glass floor for people to look down at the canyon's deep deep ravine. And down below, the Colorado river flows. Wow! Just thinking about it can make one dizzy.

The Grand Canyon is supposed to be very deep — in places over a mile (1600 m) deep - and 277 mile (446 km) long, and is cut in the Colorado Plateau. The canyon is still owned by the Red Indians, of the Hualapai tribes.[For comparision, (for my indian friends) the length of 446 km metres would be more or less the distance between Hyderabad and Nagpur. (For those outside), it is the distance between London and Paris, and a bit more].

The sky walk can withstand the weight equivavlent to 71 fully-loaded boeing 747 planes!! Can sustain winds of over 100 miles an hour! From eight different directions!! And even a 8.0 earthquake within 50 miles!!! WOW!!.

Yes, the adage rings true. "whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve"!

Check it out at http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/




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1 comment:

Ashish Gorde said...

It would still require some basic courage to step on the skywalk and look down into the grand canyon especially if one has issues with vertigo :)