Jul 1, 2009 1:57 pm US/Eastern
Into Thin Air: Sears Tower Ledge Set To Open
Visitors May Step Out In Glass-Enclosed Box And Look Straight Down To Street 1,300 Feet Below
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The view back down to the earth from the new Sears Tower Skydeck Ledge.
Sears Tower
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The new Ledge is set to open on July 2 at the Sears Tower. Visitors will get to step out into the air and see the street hundreds of stories below them through a glass floor.
CBS
Taking a trip to the Sears Tower Skydeck will now be even more of a vertigo-inducing experience.
The new Sears Tower Ledge was unveiled on Wednesday. It will open to the public on Thursday.
The Ledge is a set of clear glass walkways that extend out 4.3 feet from the Skydeck windows. Its four enclosures look down 1,353 feet over Chicago.
The glass is three layers thick, and each layer is a half-inch thick. The balconies can to hold about five tons.
Sears Tower officials said the inspiration for the balconies came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week.
"From the memorable Sears Tower scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off to curious children going right up to the window, visitors are constantly trying to catch a glimpse below. Now they have a unique and unobstructed view of the city," a Sears Tower news release said back on May 1.
Other similar attractions are found at a variety of landmarks. The Grand Canyon Skywalk protrudes over a 3,600-foot drop with a glass floor, and the CN Tower in Toronto has a glass floor on part of its observation deck. The House on the Rock attraction in Wisconsin has a glass floor in its Infinity Room, which protrudes 218 feet out into an adjoining river valley.
In addition to the new attraction, the Sears Tower will soon be changing its name. In March, the London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd. announced that it would be moving in, and the skyscraper will be renamed Willis Tower in the summer.
Building officials also recently announced a $350 million green renovation.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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