April 2007

WEATHER STATIONS IN ACTION:

Vantage Pro2 Measures Wind for Skywalk Construction

In this Skywalk construction photo, weather-buffs will spot our Vantage Pro2, barely visible on the canyon edge, just under the Skywalk.

Are you afraid of heights? If so, here’s one adventure you better do from your computer via video! The Grand Canyon Skywalk, a project of the Hualapai nation, allows visitors to stand almost 4,000 feet above earth, on a horseshoe-shaped, glass walkway that is cantilevered out over the canyon edge. (From the Taipei 101 or Sears towers, you’ll only look down a mere 1200 or so feet!)

This amazing feat of architecture is in Grand Canyon West, at a point known as Eagle Point. Building it required some heavy-duty engineering brain-power to take a million pounds of steel and use it to hang a glass sidewalk 70 feet out over the canyon. Besides being beautiful and functional, the construction had to be safe. The Skywalk is engineered to withstand the weight of several hundred visitors, a magnitude 8 earthquake, and the 80 to 90 mph winds that buffet the structure. That’s where the Vantage Pro2 came in to play. Engineers used the VP2 to measure both horizontal and vertical wind speeds in order to design a structure that wouldn’t sway in the breeze!

Fittingly, two astronauts were among the first to walk on the Skywalk when it opened in March: Buzz Aldrin and John Harrington, a member of the Chickasaw tribe and the first American Indian to fly in space. But they were not the very first to take those steps. Hualapai tribe members held a private ceremony the day before, asking permission of their ancestors to use the land this way, and then stepped out into the silent space.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, you gotta! It’ll make your palms sweat. We can’t wait to pay our $25 to take a deep breath, and step, gingerly we’re sure, and holding on, out there one of these days!

More User Stories