Grand Canyon Sky Walk - seen it? How does it work.?

[frogit22]

This defies description. Take a look at the link.

It is making my head spin. How can this possibly work?

http://www.destinationgrandcanyon.com/skywalk.html

http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3652863

 

[vmirat]

I tried to find an actual diagram or photo of this thing on the web, but only got the same artist's rendering. I suppose it could be two continuous steel sections bent into horseshoe shapes and embedded into the building on the ledge, thus making it a cantilevered beam. The "glass" is probably Lexan panels (you can see cross members between the two horseshoes that would support the panel sections).

I would be interested to learn more about this one. Especially the vibration damping, if there is any. People are not going to want to stay on this thing if it's bouncing up and down like a diving board... or maybe they will!?? My kids would love it.

 

[frogit22]

I was thinking maybe some sort of post-tensioned system. Even so, the depth looks extremely slight. Doesn't look feasible from a vibration and/or deflection standpoint.

website says there is one million pounds of steel. and is capable of supporting 71,000,000 pounds. Looks like it must cantilever 60 or 70 feet from the renderings

 

[vmirat]

Yeah, that's why I tried to find something more reliable than an artist's rendering. There's probably more to this than meets the eye.

 

[JAE]

There's a little more info in the link in this thread I started a while ago:

thread507-139451