DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

WHAT: The process of welding the steel beams for the glass cantilever-designed bridge, The Skywalk, is now underway. Shortly after the steel is fitted and welded together a process called “Jack-and-Roll” will be used in order to extend the bridges cantilever “U” shape steel piece 4,000 feet over the canyon. The total completion time for the “Jack-and-Roll” process is currently unknown, but is expected to take between eight and 24 hours. The process of placing the glass to the steel is currently under discussion on whether it will take place before or after the “Jack-and-Roll.”

WHO: The Skywalk is a partnership between the Hualapai tribe and entrepreneur David Jin of Las Vegas. The design team includes Las Vegas-based MRJ Architects, Lochsa Engineering, LLC and APCO Construction. The glass is being manufactured in Germany and Austria by Saint Gobain, a European company that specializes in designing architectural structural glass for unique building projects worldwide. The steel was manufactured by Mark Steel in Utah.

WHEN: The glass bridge preparation process is now available for viewing by appointment only to the media. The visitor’s center will be accessible and open to the public beginning first quarter 2007. It is anticipated The Skywalk will open to the public during fourth quarter 2006, with access through a temporary tunnel while the visitor’s center is being completed.

WHERE: Grand Canyon West is located approximately 120 miles east of Las Vegas, NV, and 72 miles northwest of Kingman, AZ. Attractions available at Grand Canyon West include The Indian Village with authentic dwellings, The Hualapai Market, and The Hualapai Ranch, a western town with horseback and wagon rides. Grand Canyon West is the only location throughout the entire Grand Canyon where visitors can access the river and water recreation activities at the bottom of the canyon via helicopter tours. For more information and how to purchase visitor packages, log on to www.destinationgrandcanyon.com or call 1(877) 716-WEST (9378).

It’s 10-feet wide and extends 70-feet from where it’s anchored to the rock. It has a deck made of tempered glass. That’s a description of a new $30 million structure being built in the Grand Canyon that’s expected to draw thousands.

It’s the Hualapai Indian Tribe’s “Glass Walkway,” a structure that will be suspended over the edge of the canyon some 4,000 feet above the Colorado River.

It will be higher than any of the world’s tallest free-standing skyscrapers. The walk way is horseshoe shaped, and its glass bottom will allow you to look straight down between to the canyon floor. Nothing like it has ever been attempted before.

The man-made structure will be attached to a rock face. It will take tourists to a place that so far only the birds have been able to go.

“People want to get close to the rim. But they’re scared, and it’s intimidating,” said Grand Canyon tour guide Scott Schneider.

Which is why, he said, they still come by the bus load: For the thrill of peaking over the edge, to the Colorado River running below.

“Yeah! You look over here and it seems a little nerve wracking to go the edge. It makes you little bit wobbly,” says Liuis Joseph, a tourist from Buffalo, New York.

Schneider said many of the hundreds of people who come to the Grand Canyon every day, never even look over the edge. “4,000 feet down is something that even the people who come here to see, don’t get to see because it is a little intimidating and scary to look down,” he said.

The new Skywalk will provide a perspective previously not possible. But it too is not for the faint of heart. The horseshoe shaped structure will extend out more than half the length of a football field. The floor of the walkway will be made of thick, high strength glass.

Walking on it will give the sensation of being suspended in the nothingness of the Canyon’s pristine air. Everyone who works the Canyon’s concessions– wants to try it.

“I can’t wait to get on that. But I guess I will have to wait. I hope to see it by the end of this year,” said river guide Steve Zhou.

Engineers say it will hold the weight of 71 – 747′s, and withstand winds in excess of 100 mph. There’s a million pounds of steel in the frame, most of which has already arrived at the site. Work is underway on support buildings, all of it owned and operated by the Canyon’s Hualapai tribe.

“It’s just something that you probably only dream of. To be able to look right straight down and see right below your feet. It’s like walking in the air,” said Chief Don.

The Hualapai expect the Skywalk to bring in thousands of new tourists. Las Vegas is only about two-and-a-half hours away, and all those potentially new tourists could bring in potentially millions of new dollars for the tribe.

It could be a new economic engine for one of the oldest societies in America.