Step over gorge's edge

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. — A steel-and-glass skywalk under construction by the Hualapai Tribe of Arizona on the western rim of the Grand Canyon is aimed at blending ancient beliefs with today's technology.

For more than 1,400 years, the tribe has lived in harmony with the Colorado River and the steep cliffs of the Grand Canyon. The river and its steep canyon cliffs have nourished the Hualapai (pronounced Wall-ah-pie) in body and spirit for generations, and they believe it's their duty to strive for balance between protecting the canyon's stunning beauty and sharing its natural gifts.

"The canyon to us is a very spiritual and powerful place, but it should be shared by everybody," says tribe member Wilfred Whatoname Jr., 47, who lives in Peach Springs, the capital of the Hualapai's 1-million-acre reservation, which borders 108 miles of the Grand Canyon.

The tribe's economic health depends on tourism, but tribal leaders decided gaming ventures didn't make sense because Las Vegas was a mere 120 miles away. Instead, the tribe takes tourists by helicopter into the canyon, on pontoon rides down the Colorado River, and on day trips to experience the pristine, sacred sites on tribal land.

One of the most breathtaking vistas is at Eagle Point, where the tribe is building the semi-circular glass platform as part of a $40 million tourism venture called Grand Canyon West. Eagle Point gets its name from a tribal legend of a boy who turned into an eagle, and visitors are shown a rock formation shaped like an eagle in the canyon cliffs below.

When the skywalk is completed, visitors will be able to walk out onto the horseshoe-shaped platform and peer 4,000 feet straight down to the winding Colorado River. Welding is nearly complete on the massive steel-beam sections that will encase layer after layer of architectural structural glass manufactured in Germany and Austria by Saint Gobain. A Utah firm, Mark Steel, provided the steel beams.

Engineers say the 10-foot-wide skywalk could hold about 120 people comfortably, and it's built to support 70 million pounds of weight and withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake or winds of up to 100 mph.

The cantilever design of the bridge — with its steel footings buried 40 feet deep — will keep half the skywalk on solid ground. Another 70 feet of the structure will jut out over the sheer cliff walls of the Grand Canyon's rim.