Archive for category History Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon Skywalk is Nature’s Greatest Thrill Ride
Posted by admin in History Grand Canyon, History World on May 26, 2011
David Jin’s pitch was simple: Build a rectangular platform made of glass and hang it off the lip of the Grand Canyon’s West Rim. The attraction would be so outrageous that people around the world would flock to experience it. The entrepreneur and half-owner of the walkway was right. In just three years, more than a million people have walked the “Glass Bridge,” and there’s no sign that demand will let up.
The Skywalk is located in a remote stretch of desert owned by the Hualapai Indian Tribe. Diesel fuel, water, and waste are trucked in over a ten-mile dirt road. Satellite uplinks provide cell phone and Internet service; in late 2009, satellite repeaters were installed that give visitors cell phone coverage in Guano and Eagle Points. The Bridge is definitely off the beaten track.
So why do people come? Simple: The chance to be suspended 4,000 feet over the Colorado River in order to get views of the Grand Canyon that are unobtainable anywhere else in the National Park.
Crazy as it sounds, the distance from the Skywalk to the River is more than twice the height of the world’s tallest building. For you “fact hounds,” here’s a short list of the planet’s tallest edifices:
* CN Tower – 1,815 ft.
* Taipei 101 – 1,671 ft.
* Petronas Towers – 1,483 ft.
* Sears Tower – 1,450 ft.
* Empire State Building – 1,250 ft.
* Stratosphere Tower – 1,149 ft.
* Gateway Arch – 630 ft.
* Petronas Towers – 1,483 ft.
* Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank – 587 ft. Read the rest of this entry »
The Grand Canyon, Brief History
Posted by admin in History Grand Canyon, History World on May 26, 2011
The Grand Canyon is a feature of natural won
der unlike anything else on the planet. It dwarfs most other American natural wonders on almost every scale. As much as a mile deep, about 277 miles long and 18 miles wide, it is an unbelievable sight. It is located in a remote destination in the middle of the vast American desert. It is a gorge of immense proportions – 18 miles across and a mile straight down, it follows the Colorado River as it traverses the terrain of northern Arizona.
History and Geology
During its 1,450-mile journey from the Rocky Mountain National Park into northern Mexico, the Colorado River travels through a particular stretch of land in northern Arizona that has become one of America’s most recognized natural landscapes. It is here where, over the course of millions of years, the river carved a deep gorge through the rocks and sediment, creating the Grand Canyon. This exposed rock, colorful and layered, can be seen almost as far west as Lake Mead and reveals over 1.4 billion years of the Earth’s evolution.
Even though the Grand Canyon is a mile deep at times, with the Colorado River following through the path, the river is still about 2,800 feet above sea level when it enters the canyon from the east. The exposed rock, billions of years old, is actually due not to the river sinking below sea level, but rather from the Earth’s crust rising in a region known as the Colorado Plateaus.
The origins of the Grand Canyon can be traced back about 75 million years, during the formation of the Rocky Mountains. After millions of years, the mountains’ formation eventually resulted in the Colorado Plateaus, a large flat region of about 130,000 square miles that is higher in elevation than the surrounding regions. Read the rest of this entry »