photo: http://www.boredpanda.com/glass-bottomed-walkway-cracked-yuntai-mountain-henan-china/?image_id=glass-bottomed-walkway-cracked-yuntai-mountain-henan-china-6.jpg
Yesterday, Will Run For Miles featured a video and discussion on the suspension bridge made of glass at the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in China (see, World’s Longest Glass Bridge – Would you Walk on it?). Of course, a common discussion surrounding this structure is the safety of a glass-bottomed bridge, but the creators repeatedly assure that the structure is safe (see, e.g., this CNN article).
Today, a number of readers informed me that some of the glass on the bridge cracked and shattered. According to this article in Bored Panda (3,500-Ft-High Glass Walkway Cracks Under Visitors’ Feet), “a glass walkway at Yuntai Mountain Geological Park in China cracked right under visitors’ feet on Monday after a visitor dropped a stainless steel cup.” People were terrified and the walkway is now closed until further notice. The Bored Panda article further states that “The visitors were not endangered, as the walkway features several layers of 2.7cm-thick glass, each of which can support 800kg per square meter. Because the glass plates were custom-made, there is no word on when the walkway will be reopened.”
It took me a while to figure this out, but these are two different glass-bottomed walkways in China – one is in Yuntai Mountain Geological Park and the other in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park. If Google Maps didn’t fail me, they are 875 Kilometers apart.
This news nevertheless does not increase my confidence in these glass-bottomed structures.
What was it that Confucius said about glass houses?
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A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
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