A glass-bottom Skydeck for Sears Tower

Visitors won't have to crane their necks to see straight down from the Sears Tower Skydeck when the building adds four glass-bottomed balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge," to its 50-mile views come June.

The Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the building that is changing its name to Willis Tower, opened in 1974, and has--weather permitting--always provided a view of four states. But to see what's directly beneath them, visitors always had to get as close to the building's windows as possible. The Ledge is scheduled to open next month, according to a spokeswoman for the Skydeck.



"The inspiration for The Ledge came from hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week," according to a fact sheet from the Sears Tower.

There will be no extra charge for The Ledge, although the charge for Skydeck admission increased a dollar today to $14.95 for those ages 12 and older, the first increase in two years; admission for those ages 3 to 11 is $10.50.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/05/a-glass-bottom-skydeck-for-sears-tower.html

kicked in right away with the old design. In fact, despite my fear, I was one of the bravest of my party viewing and actually went up to the window while others wouldn't.

in the hancock, the windows go from floor to ceiling- when i was a kid, i wouldn't get any closer than 4 feet from the windows, because it scared me too much. in the sears, the windows start at about waist level, and go up from there.

I have trouble walking down long, open stairways unless I grab the rail, hang on and walk really slowly. (Had to do this a few weeks ago at an elaborate movie theater.) Seeing something like this - glass, easily shattered, a multi-story plunge to my death - would make me faint.

You could probably take a jack-hammer to it and not make much of a dent.

Being afraid of living is just another way of dying before your time.

good grief.

You don't understand a fear as instinctive and natural as the fear of plunging to your death? This is one of the fears that people are BORN with. And it's a perfectly sensible fear.

Many more people than I will not go on roller coasters or climb long stairwells because we have the intelligence and imagination that you don't. We can clearly visualize dying. The universe is ready to betray us in a million ways, and height is one of the most basic.

Cite one instance of glass that's designed to support weight shattering and I'll apologize.

Especially the ones that someone claims "will support weight." All it takes is one freaking bullet. And there are a lot of guns around. Watch any action movie and you will never see any "glass floor" that doesn't shatter.

And no one has plunged to their death yet.

And then there's that glass observation balcony over
the Grand Canyon:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-443560/Grand-Canyon-observation-deck-reaches-dizzying-heights.html

Tesha

That is essentially shatter proof, and has the transparency of glass, with the exception of ultraviolet.

Polycarbonate compounds are much stronger, pound for pound, than glass and can be made thicker without severe distortion. Lucite and polycarb are used for safety glasses specifically because they DON'T shatter. Obviously, this is much safer around the eyes.
GAC

Have you ever seen the photos of people whose heads go through automobile windshields because they didn't wear their belts? That's "shatterproof" glass. They get their throats cut because the stuff holds together.

The ferry could hit an iceberg and sink.

The fact that it's never happened before doesn't mean that couldn't happen.

I saw it in a movie.

:eyes:

Unless your house is destroyed by a rampaging mob. Even if I could still afford it, I would never leave the continental United States. There is no reason to risk my life among all the foreign people who want to kill us, just to get a glimpse of a waterfall I could look at in a picture. The excuses for going out into the Deadlands are pathetic.

It's built to do that (ever hear of breakaway furnature?).

If it won't do it by itself, they'll use explosives.

Don't go by the movies.

to allow passengers to observe the slowly-passing earth or sea below. To assuage nervous passengers, crew members would jump up and down on the glass floor to prove its strength.

And it has more between the visitors and the view than this concept picture of the Sears Tower thing. I think I saw somewhere that it costs $80 per person to walk around it.



http://picdit.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/the-grand-canyon-skywalk/

Even if I could overcome my vertigo to try to walk out on the Skywalk! Of course, they will generously sell you pictures, I am sure. But if they are of the same mediocre quality we bought at the Grand Canyon when we last visited, they are a waste of money. Not only were the pictures themselves indifferent, the reproduction of the slides was cheap - while our slides from that trip had little color shift over the thirty years since, the commercial ones are almost solid magenta. I can scan them and adjust the color in Photoshop - but it is technical a copyright violation.

Our own amateur pictures were better and showed parts of of own experience. For instance, one morning while we were our taking pics of sun rise over the Canyon, we saw a gentleman who had climbed out on a spur of rock to get a better angle. I think my husband took a snap of him. Later that year, the National Geographic had a photo spread of the Grand Canyon. The photographer we had seen was the one for that spread!

I don't see the point in being able to walk out on a bridge like that and NOT be allowed to take pictures!

Maybe they're afraid of people dropping their cameras or something? Or maybe they just wanna keep the line moving?

More bodies moving through, more $$; selling pictures to the tourists, more $$. A very simple formula!

Adults (18-61) $20
Students (13-17) $18
Children (6-12) $13
Seniors (62+) $18

http://www.nycvp.com/TicketOrder-TOR.htm

.

This sounds way cool. Love the quote about the forehead prints.

Renaming this building is like renaming the Chrysler building. Whatch you talkin' about, Willis?

Though I don't remember it being quite as clean as that.

Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

£17.00

Compare that to $16.00 to go up the stupid Seattle Space Needle.

Then again, it's worth doing that one once, just because.

As a kid we used to lean up against the windows of the Hancock and Sears observatories and watch the building sway (yes you sure can see it). I'm sure on the skywalk you're sure to get that experience...and certainily not one for one who suffers from vertigo.

But if you want a walk even higher...try one a mile high:

http://www.destinationgrandcanyon.com/skywalk.html

Some may find that exhilarating and fun but my nervous ass would NEVER get out on that glass ledge...

I put my hand out a window more than 5 stories off the ground and I can FEEL my watch and rings falling off...

No. Way.

This picture is making my sphincter contract.

:)

Ferris: Anything is peaceful from one thousand, three hundred and fifty-three feet.
Cameron: I think I see my dad.

I'd like to check that out.

I mean, if I wanted to scare the people into soiling their outfits, I'd go out there; jump up and down. But knowing the maximum weight helps determine other variables in relation to the constant of physics...

Very cool!

And it was terrifying. There were kids jumping up and down on the glass. I sucked it up and walked across it. :scared: