Glass platform in China. Glass observation decks. glass bridge over the cliff of the sheer Tianmen Mountain

Recently in China there has appeared new trend– construction of glass bridges and platforms. These creepy places attract thousands of tourists who want to tickle their nerves. This is what a transparent bridge looks like:

Just imagine, all-round views of the picturesque landscape open under your feet. It seems as if you are floating above the ground. However, few will feel such euphoria. A transparent bridge over an abyss or a glass platform will cause panic attacks in impressionable people. And although the Chinese consider walking in such places the best cure against acrophobia, experts still recommend refraining from such radical methods of combating the disease. Here, an obsessive fear of heights can develop into an insurmountable panic attack and provoke heart problems.

Do you not suffer from acrophobia and does the transparent bridge over the abyss not cause you fear? Don't flatter yourself! You never know how the brain will react in a given situation, because the instinct of self-preservation is very strong, and your eyes see danger. In the photo you can see how people get on all fours, press themselves against the rock, and some are even afraid to walk, so they are dragged by their legs or arms.


However, if you are a fearless adventure seeker looking for new experiences, the transparent bridge in China is exactly what you need. This type of entertainment is much safer than high-speed racing and skydiving. No risk. But there are a lot of impressions!

3 glass bridges over the cliff of the sheer Tianmen Mountain


The first glass bridge was built here in the fall of 2011. The thickness of the glass is only 6 cm. The second one opened to visitors in May 2016. For particularly daring tourists, bungee jumping into the abyss is offered.

The third transparent bridge on Tianmen Mountain, called “Writhing Dragon,” was built in 2017. The height above the abyss is 1500 meters! The glass path leads to the top of the mountain, meandering around the hill and offering tourists breathtaking views.

Just recently, news spread all over the world that a transparent bridge in China was cracking. One fine day, a crunch of glass was heard under the feet of frightened tourists, and many cracks formed. Videos of the incident immediately appeared online. In fact, the attraction's management planned a similar show.

Special panels were built into the glass bridge, which created a “crackling” effect. Many visitors condemned the park management for this. And rightly so! This should be warned in advance. After all, severe fear can cause a heart attack!

The longest glass bridge in the world made in China

In 1.5 years, the longest transparent bridge in the world was erected over two cliffs in Hebei province, which was included in the Book of Records. A transparent bridge 488 meters long hung over the abyss at an altitude of 250 meters (approximately the level of the 66th floor of the building).

Not only is the glass only 4 cm thick, but this bridge is also slightly wobbly! It should be said that the structure has been tested for strength and meets all safety standards, but the realization that only a few centimeters of glass separates you from the abyss will provide a decent adrenaline rush.

Glass bridge demonstration test

Acrophobia is the fear of heights. When at altitude, a person suffering from acrophobia experiences nausea and dizziness. Do you feel familiar? If yes, then forget about this attraction. China already has several glass suspension bridges over the abyss and glass walkways along the cliffs. And recently, another transparent glass observation deck appeared, protruding from the edge of the mountain at an altitude of 768 meters above sea level. An extreme terrace near Beijing rises 400 meters above a picturesque valley.

However, crowds of adrenaline junkies know no fear, and the observation deck is already breaking all attendance records. This is the largest platform of this type in the world, which has already become famous throughout the world. Tourists from all over China and beyond come here to admire the unique view and test their willpower.



The Glass Platform is located in the tourist spot of Shilinxia in the Pinggu district near Beijing. The width of the suspension bridge is 32.8 meters. The length is 11 meters longer than a similar structure in the United States - the SkyWalk observation deck in the Grand Canyon. On this moment it is the longest observation platform in the world.



The futuristic design fits well into the picturesque gorge - as if a flying saucer had landed here. Stunning views of the mountains and forest are open to brave tourists, but not everyone dares to set foot here. Navigating a glass floor is not for the faint of heart. The glass platform is absolutely safe - it is made of titanium, steel and bulletproof glass that has passed all the necessary tests.



It really can be called a crime if you come here without a camera. Therefore, tourists use every second to take stunning pictures above the abyss. The glass floor and fence give the feeling of flying in the air. It’s worth overcoming yourself and your fears and walking along the circular bridge across the valley, admiring the villages, mountains and forest, and feeling like a part of nature.


At one of the creepiest observation decks in China.

Modern people, accustomed to a comfortable and measured life, apparently really lack adrenaline. Even watching horror movies and going to roller coasters don't help. Otherwise how can we understand the fact that everything more tourists ready to fly to distant lands to visit the most terrible observation decks peace? But just the sight of these structures “hovering” over the abyss should, in theory, discourage anyone from visiting them.

"Skywalk"


Arc-shaped corridor in the USA

The Grand Canyon Skywalk observation deck is located in Arizona (USA). It is an arched corridor that, like a balcony, hangs over the abyss. The floor and walls of this site are transparent, and if you know that you are at an altitude of 1 km 219 meters, it becomes especially creepy. But if you're not afraid of heights, you can enjoy the stunning view of the Grand Canyon, which, by the way, is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO, and the Colorado River flowing somewhere far below.


The sky walk is not for the faint of heart.

The Skywalk site was opened 11 years ago, and over the years its popularity has only grown. Particularly anxious visitors are reassured by the fact that the thickness of the glass floor is 10 cm, and this unique structure can withstand eight times more than that the load it usually experiences is almost 5 tons per square meter.

Bridge in Engelberg


Bridge over mountain peaks.

Pedestrian bridge on ski resort Engelberg (Switzerland) is considered the highest in the world. At the beginning of the last century, a cable car was opened here, and it was possible to travel only by cable cars. Now you can walk over the snow-covered mountain abyss on foot - along a narrow (less than a meter wide) bridge, which, by the way, also swings.


Scary, but beautiful.

The entire path takes 150 meters, and if you don’t think about the fact that you are at an altitude of 500 meters, you can try to pull yourself together and take pictures of the gorgeous views of the Alps along the way.

Observation deck at Alspitze


Two arcs suspended in the sky.

The Alpspitze observation deck (Germany), opened 8 years ago, consists of two crossed arched balconies-bridges protruding 13 meters above the two-kilometer abyss. From here they open beautiful views you can look at the mountains and remote villages, and at the thick clouds you can look not from the bottom up, but from the top down.


For the sake of such beauty it is worth overcoming fear

Many visitors notice that when they step on the grated floor, the structure vibrates slightly and becomes very eerie. And here a piercing wind very often blows, and at such moments it seems that you are just going to be blown away.

"Trail of Terror" and "Bridge of Terror"


This observation deck is recognized as the scariest in the world.

The Glass Sky Trail, like a long balcony attached to Tianmen Mountain in China's Hunan province, is just one of several similar viewing platforms in the Middle Kingdom, but it is usually the one that causes the most horror among travelers. And although its length is only 60 meters, the 1.5-kilometer abyss under the glass floor involuntarily forces especially impressionable tourists to literally “walk along the wall.” And the fact that you are walking along a sheer wall makes it seem like you are a real climber, and this makes the path even more exciting.


Above the abyss you involuntarily press yourself against the wall.

Not far from this observation deck there is another “trail of fear”, which is a very long and transparent suspension bridge. It is located at an altitude of 180 meters, but is considered the most terrible and longest (300 meters) of all such bridges in the world.


The world's longest bridge of fear.

This path is also creepy, although incredibly beautiful, but the structure itself is much wider and more impressive than the “path” on the rock. However, before this bridge was wooden and even then there were daredevils to walk across it.

"Sky Bridge" Langkawi


From this creepy bridge you can see all the beauty of Malaysia.

Malaysia also has a scary observation deck - this is an arched bridge built 10 km from Langkawi airport. The structure connects two mountains, and its only support is a metal pylon in the center. To get to the bridge, you first need to ride one of the funiculars that start from the local village, and then climb to the southern end of the bridge by an inclined elevator or on foot along the path.


Even in this paradise planets can tickle your nerves.

To make walking along this long corridor more scary and at the same time more interesting, there are transparent “windows” under your feet every now and then. And at both ends of the bridge there are triangular viewing platforms from which the beauty of Malaysia opens up in full view.


For many years now no one has been surprised by glass walls and roofs. But there are also many structures in the world in which transparent is floor. Most often these are buildings that are related to tourism. And today we will talk about 10 most beautiful and unusual similar cases from all over the world.

Glass balcony in a Chicago skyscraper

On the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago is one of the most unusual observation decks in the world. Its most interesting element is completely glass balcony, sticking out. Even the floor in this architectural element is made of strong transparent material, which gives it a special extreme.





For five years it was believed that this glass floor was absolutely safe for visitors. But recently an emergency occurred - the strongest glass in it burst. There were, of course, no casualties. But the company that operates this observation deck in the Sears Tower has taken measures to ensure that this never happens again - it has installed even stronger and thicker glass.



And if the Sears Tower skyscraper was put into operation in Chicago in 2009, then in Moscow there has been an observation deck with a glass floor for several decades. It is located at an altitude of 337 meters in the Ostankino TV tower.



But this is not a balcony. The glass floor on the observation deck in Ostankino is built in separate blocks into a regular floor. Each of these elements is designed to support a weight of up to 10 tons.

Observation deck over the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River

The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular and most visited tourist attractions in the United States of America. And in 2007, a very unusual object opened on one of its slopes - an observation deck Grand Canyon Skywalk.



What makes it unusual is that this horseshoe-shaped structure, hovering over the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, has a glass floor. And people walking along it are essentially walking over a 350-meter abyss of one of the most beautiful places on the ground.



Statistics show that about 10 percent of Grand Canyon Skywalk visitors, after seeing this glass floor with their own eyes, refuse to walk on it, even though they have already paid money to enter the site.



Even more terrifying for some visitors is walking along a scenic path in the Tianmen Mountains in Hunan Province, China. After all, about seventy meters of the path pass through a structure with a glass floor. And this is at an altitude of 1.2 kilometers!



However, several years ago the path in this place was even more terrible and dangerous. After all, the modern tourist path is located on the site of the old path of the monks who lived in these mountains. And they didn’t have any glass floor or safe railings - they walked along separate ledges, clinging to hooks driven into the rock and ropes stretched between them.



The futuristic-looking Apple store in New York became the first building of a huge network that later entangled the whole world. It has spawned many imitations all over the planet. And not only the walls and ceiling, but also the floor are made of glass in this building. True, the latter is slightly foggy so that people on the lower floors cannot “admire” from below the intimate parts of the body of store visitors walking on the level above.





A glass floor inside a building is possible not only in tall skyscrapers or multi-story stores. It is quite appropriate to do it in . Especially if it is located somewhere in the Maldives and stands on stilts in the middle of the warm azure ocean.



One of the buildings of the LUX* Maldives hotel boasts such an interior. In the living room of this bungalow, a coffee table stands on glass floor, and armchairs and sofas are located around it.



There are similar design elements in other hotels in the Maldives. For example, in Water Villa on Nunu Atoll.



The Sky Tower radio tower, like the Ostankino TV tower, boasts an observation deck with glass floor elements located at an altitude of more than 300 meters above the earth's surface. But still, another similar element of the Sky Tower design is more interesting to us.



When ascending to the above-mentioned observation deck in the Sky Tower, the tourist rides in a high-speed elevator, which has part of the floor also made of glass. True, he has to admire not the panoramas of the city of Auckland, but the elevator shaft of the tower.



In some booths cable car Ngong Ping 360 in Hong Kong, even those people who, in principle, are calm about heights, are afraid to sit down. But they also cannot travel in a trailer flying through the sky, which has strong, bulletproof glass installed instead of the usual floor.



These cabins on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car are called Crystal Cabins, and travel in them costs more than in ordinary cars with a metal floor.



In another Chinese metropolis, Shanghai, it's not a cable car cabin that has a glass floor, but a hotel pool Holiday Inn. Moreover, this part of it is a balcony located on the twenty-fourth floor of the building.



This is one of two cases in this review where best views They open onto the glass floor not from above, but from below. A person swimming in such a pool will look like an airplane flying across the sky to others.



The Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River in the Californian city of Reading is known throughout the world for two facts. Firstly, it was built according to the design of one of the greatest architects of our time - Santiago Calatrava.



Secondly, the surface of this pedestrian bridge is completely covered with transparent glass, which allows you to achieve incredible visual effects both during the day and in the evening.


We are already accustomed to glass panoramic walls, but what if there is a glass floor?

What if this floor is at an altitude of 100 or 1000 meters?

The glass cube is located on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower in Melbourne.

The observation deck “sticks out” from the high-rise building by 3 meters.

The deck is located 300 meters from ground level.

Skywalk platform observation deck in Sydney, Australia

An open-air observation deck at the Sydney TV Tower.

The outdoor observation deck is at an altitude of 268 meters, and at an altitude of 250 meters there is a closed observation deck with a regular floor.

Five Fingers observation deck in the Austrian Alps

The Five Fingers site is located above Lake Hallstatt in Austria.

Each of the “fingers” protrudes 4 meters above the abyss 400 meters deep.

All “fingers” have their own flavor.
there is a frame on the first finger so that visitors can take a photo portrait as a souvenir;
the second finger has a floor made of transparent glass so that visitors can literally “hang over the abyss”;
the third (central) finger is shorter than the others and is closed to visitors - this symbolizes the inaccessibility and freedom of the mountains;
at the fourth finger there is a hole in the floor through which you can observe the cliff below;
a free telescope is installed on the fifth finger.

Observation deck in Triassic Park, Austria

The coral-shaped observation deck is located in Triassic Park, Waidring, Tyrol.

The floor on the site is partially glass.

Tower Bridge in London, UK

The glass floor of the gallery at the top of Tower Bridge is 42 meters high, 11 meters long and almost 2 meters wide.

Visitors can watch the bridge being raised and see ships sailing along the Thames.


AlpspiX observation deck in Germany

The AlpspiX observation deck is located above the "Hell Valley" in the Bavarian Alps.

The platform consists of two crossed platforms. One of them is “pushed” into the abyss by 13 meters, and the other by 11 meters. The length of each platform is 24 meters and the width is 3 meters.

The floor, however, is not glass, but lattice, but still transparent, everything is visible.

Observation deck in national park Jasper,

Alberta, Canada

In Canada's Jasper National Park, located in Alberta, there is an observation deck called Glacier Skywalk.

It is located at an altitude of 280 meters above the Sunwapta Valley.


Observation deck on the TV tower in Calgary, Alberta Province, Canada

The observation deck is located on the television tower in Calgary.

Height above ground - 191 meters

Suspension bridge in Hunanpijang village, Hunan province, China

The bridge is located above the gorge at a height of 180 meters.

The bridge is constantly swaying in the wind!

Bridge on Tianmen Rock, Hunan Province, China

In Hunan Province, China sheer cliff Tianmen, 1430 meters high, was built observation bridge from glass.

The length of the glass section is 60 meters, the width is about a meter

Tourists are given cloth galoshes to walk along the glass walkway, which is 2.5 inches thick.

There are also cantilever-type viewing platforms. There is glass under your feet, and under the glass there is an abyss.



Yunduan Bridge in Chongqing, China

The bridge is built on top of a steep cliff.

The length of the suspended platform is 26.68 meters, and the depth of the gorge under it reaches 718 meters. The structure was designed to withstand an earthquake of up to magnitude 8.

The Yunduan Bridge can accommodate up to 200 people at a time: the structure is designed for loads of up to 9 tons per square meter.


Glass corridor and observation deck in Shanghai, China

The glass corridor and observation deck are located in the Shanghai World Financial Center.

The floor is not solid, but consists of individual glass inserts. The height above the ground is 474 meters.

Observation deck on the Ostankino TV tower, Moscow, Russia

The observation deck of the Ostankino TV tower is located at an altitude of 337 meters.

Each of these elements is designed to support a weight of up to 10 tons.


Grand Canyon Skywalk, USA

Skywalk Observation Deck is the world's first horseshoe-shaped cantilever glass bridge, soaring above the Grand Canyon at an altitude of about 1200 meters and at a distance of 21 meters from the edge of the abyss.

No cables or brackets limit the 720° view. The bridge's 10 cm thick transparent floor and its entire open glass structure make it possible to "step off the edge" Grand Canyon", look at this amazing miracle of nature from a bird's eye view.

The Skywalk bridge is 3 m wide, 42 m long, and the walls are 1.5 m high. Today, the Grand Canyon SkyWalk is the tallest building in the world and the first structure of its kind in the world, and the reinforcing bars holding the bridge are the largest in the world. Interestingly, no cranes were used during the construction of this engineering miracle.


"Infinity Room" over the abyss in the USA

The Infinity Room is located in Wisconsin.

The "endless" room has 3,264 windows and ends with a glass floor above the treetops.


Glass balcony in Chicago, Illinois, USA

The glass balcony is located on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. In total, the skyscraper has 110 floors.

There are 4 glass balconies and each of them can withstand a load of 5 tons.

The height above the ground is 412 meters, the width of the balconies is 1.22 meters.


Observation deck “Step into the Void” in the French Alps

Observation deck "Step Into the Void". located at the top of the Aiguille du Midi mountain in France

The glass room has five transparent sides, each of which consists of three heavy-duty glass layers.

And under your feet - 1035 meters of alpine air and glaciers, ahead - a magnificent view of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps.

 

It might be useful to read: