Grand Canyon Skywalk

The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge with a glass walkway in Arizona near the Colorado River on the edge of a side canyon in the Grand Canyon West area of the main canyon. USGS topographic maps show the elevation at the Skywalk's location as 4770ft and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 1160ft, and they show that the height of the precisely vertical drop directly under the skywalk is between 500ft and 800ft. Commissioned and owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe, it was unveiled March 20, 2007, and opened to the general public on March 28, 2007. It is accessed via the Grand Canyon West Airport terminal or a 120-mile (190 km) drive from Las Vegas. The Skywalk is east of Meadview and north of Peach Springs with Kingman being the closest city of some size.Design and constructionDavid Jin, an entrepreneur who had been involved with tourism and the Hualapai Nation for some time, had the idea of extending a platform out over the edge of the Grand Canyon. With the help of architect Mark Ross Johnson, that idea evolved into a rectangular walkway and eventually the "U"-shaped walkway that has now been constructed.The overall Skywalk width is. The Skywalk length extending out from the post supports closest to the canyon wall is 70ft. The outer and inner 32in by 72in bridge box beams are supported by eight 32x box posts having four posts on each side of the visitor’s center, once completed. The eight posts are anchored in pairs into four large concrete footings that are in turn anchored to the bedrock by ninety-six 2+1/2in DYWIDAG (acronym pronounced Doo-Wee-Dag) high strength steel threaded rod rock anchors grouted 46ft deep into the rock.