Skywalkers aren't just in Star Wars

These days, they're at the Grand Canyon, too. (Yikes!) Pay your entrance fee and you can become a Skywalker, too...

I'm not sure quite what I think about the Grand Canyon Skywalk. Perhaps I'll form an opinion when the strangeness wears off?

Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but (according to local legend at least) in early settlement days in the West, people were fond of building grand hotels more or less in the middle of nowhere, confident that people would flock to their hotel, bringing fame and fortune to the owner and providing the foundation on which a town could be built. This happened enough times, and failed enough times, that the public took to calling such would-be tourist attractions follies -- usually with the unfortunate owner's name attached: i.e., if I'd lived back then and done such a thing, my grand attraction, to which I'd clipped a fancy name like The Broadmoorian-Savoy, would be called Judson's Folly by neighbor and passer-by alike. (In general, pretentiousness had a hard time getting much respect - or cooperation - in the young American West.) The term, if I understand correctly, came to be used for any sort of structure that seemed jarringly out of place and/or somehow pie-in-the-sky and/or simply impractical. (Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not an expert on these things. I'm just going on what I've been told.)

Of course, the Skywalk is in a place that already draws tourists, so the comparison isn't very good, but that's what I thought when I first looked at the pictures of the Skywalk: why, look, someone's gone and built a folly, I said to myself. (That was before I went to the website and found out about the restaurants, bars, museum, theater, gift shop, meeting facilities, etc., that are part and parcel of the project.) I hope they prove me wrong. Any folly that actually turns a profit is, by definition, no longer properly called a folly, as I understand it.

And, hey, I like that it's an attraction that requires courage, or daring at least, on the part of its customers. Heh. :) And I'm in awe of the imagination and engineering. I admire the spirit of the thing.

But... but... what an odd thing to do on the rim of a perfectly good canyon... (Have I mentioned yet that I'm not quite sure what to think about the Skywalk?)

What's your impression?

hat tip: Jane