scenic view at Grand Canyon Skywalk

See the Grand Canyon from a new perspective: walking over it. Today is the opening ceremony, and next week is the grand opening. The official website www.grandcanyonskywalk.com is flooded with hits and I can’t get in either. The Grand Canyon West website has “making of” videos. BusinessWeek excerpt:

Visitors who have marveled at the Grand Canyon’s vistas will now have a dizzying new option: a glass-bottom observation deck allowing them to gaze into the chasm beneath their feet.

The Skywalk, officially being unveiled Tuesday, is being touted as an engineering marvel. The glass-and-steel horseshoe extends 70 feet beyond the canyon’s edge with no visible supports above or below.

For $25 plus other fees, up to 120 people at a time will be able to look down to the canyon floor 4,000 feet below, a vantage point more than twice as high as the world’s tallest buildings.

Hualapai Indians, whose reservation is about 90 miles west of Grand Canyon National Park, allowed a Las Vegas developer to build the $30 million Skywalk in hopes of creating a unique attraction on their side of the canyon.

Hualapai leaders were to be the first to set foot on the Skywalk on Tuesday, with former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and John Herrington hired to join them for a brief ceremony to christen the deck.

The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public on March 28.

Check Google News for the latest buzz as it happens. [update] Yes, Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin has taken the first steps onto the $30 million Skywalk.