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Skywalk offers a new view of canyon

People walk on the Skywalk during the First Walk event at the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Indian Reservation at Grand Canyon West, Arizona, on Tuesday. The Skywalk opens to the general public next Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

Indian leaders, former astronauts and other visitors stepped gingerly beyond the Grand Canyon's rim, staring through a glass floor and into the 1,219m chasm below during the opening ceremony for a new observation deck.

A few members of the Hualapai Indian Tribe, which allowed the Grand Canyon Skywalk to be built, hopped up and down on the horseshoe-shaped structure. At its edge -- 21m beyond the rim -- the group peeked over the glass wall.

"I can hear the glass cracking," Hualapai chairman Charlie Vaughn said playfully.

The massive deck is anchored deep into a limestone cliff. As people walk across it, the glass layers creak and the deck wobbles almost imperceptibly. To one side, the Colorado river appears as a slim, pea-green ribbon.

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was invited to visit, declared it a "magnificent first walk."

The Hualapai, whose reservation is about 140km west of Grand Canyon National Park, allowed Las Vegas developer David Jin to build the US$30 million Skywalk in hopes of creating a unique attraction on their section of the canyon.

"To me, I believe this is going to help us. We don't get any help from the outside, so, why not?" said Dallas Quasula Sr, 74, a tribal elder.

The tribe will include access to the deck in a variety of tour packages ranging from US$49.95 to US$199.

They will allow up to 120 people at a time to look down to the canyon floor from a vantage point more than twice as high as the world's tallest buildings.

The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public next Wednesday.

To reach the transparent deck, tourists must drive 22.5km on twisty, unpaved roads. However, the tribe hopes it becomes the centerpiece of a budding tourism industry that includes helicopter tours, river rafting, a cowboy town and a museum of Indian replica homes.

Robert Bravo Jr, operations manager of the Hualapai tourist attractions called Grand Canyon West, said he hoped the Skywalk would double tourist traffic to the reservation this year -- from about 300,000 visitors to about 600,000.

Mark Johnson, the architect who designed the Skywalk, said the structure can support the weight of a few hundred people and will withstand winds up to 100mph.

The observation deck has a 7.6cm thick glass bottom and has been equipped with shock absorbers to keep it from bouncing like a diving board as people walk on it.

The Skywalk has sparked debate on and off the reservation. Many Hualapai worry about disturbing nearby burial sites, and environmentalists have blamed the tribe for transforming the majestic canyon into a tourist trap.

Hualapai leaders say they weighed those concerns for years. With a third of the tribe's 2,200 members living in poverty, the tribal government decided it needs the tourism dollars.
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