I’ve never been afraid of heights in the traditional sense, but I’ll admit to small bouts of vertigo experienced while standing on glass floors like these. I think it’s the idea that I’m stepping out onto something delicate and thin, when realistically these floors are engineered to withstand massive amounts of weight, the elements, even bullets.
Here are 18 of the best glass floor experiences from around the world.
Location: Macau, China
Height: 1,109ft
Anthony Bourdain bungee jumped off the top floor in an episode of No Reservations.
Photo: Klara Steffkova/Shutterstock
Location: Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia, Canada
Highest point in the ride: 1427ft above Fitzsimmons Creek
Each gondola is equipped to fit up to 28 people, and able to transport over 4,000 people per hour.
Location: Toronto, Canada
Height: 1,815.4ft
The CN Tower’s EdgeWalk feature allows particularly ballsy visitors to walk around the outside rim of the tower, tethered only to an overhead rail system.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Height: 1,451ft
On a clear day, visitors can see three additional states — Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin — from the tower’s skydeck.
Photo: Michael Stokes/Shutterstock
Location: Portsmouth, England
Height: 560ft
The glass floor at the Spinnaker Tower is the largest in Europe.
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Height: 626ft
762 steps lead up to the observation deck of the Calgary Tower.
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Height: 1,076ft
The tower is designed to resist earthquakes; seismologists have stated that even an earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.0, and located 12 miles away, would not cause the tower to collapse.
Photo: Joken_J/Shutterstock
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Height: 2,080ft
Locals were asked to vote on the tower’s official name. Other choices included “Tokyo Edo Tower,” “Tower of the Future,” and “Dream Lookout.”
Location: Sydney, Australia
Visitors are guided through the aquarium via acrylic glass tubes and tunnels; it’s home to more than 6,000 individual fish and other aquatic animals.
Photo: ArliftAtoz2205/Shutterstock
Location: Sydney, Australia
The floor of the entrance corridor is transparent, and includes a 4.2m x 9.5m scale model of Sydney’s Central Business District.
Photo: Francesco Bonino/Shutterstock
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Height: 1,093ft
Tokyo Tower is more than a radio transmission structure. Travelers can visit the tower’s aquarium, wax museum, amusement park, and the Trick Art Gallery, which specializes in optical illusions.
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Height: 975ft
Visitors actually walk into something called “The Edge” — a black cube that moves out over the building once a person has stepped inside of it. Once the cube has moved all the way out (approximately 10 feet), the glass turns from opaque to clear, revealing the city below.
Photo: Sergii Figurnyi/Shutterstock
Location: Arizona, US
Height: 4,770ft
The Skywalk has received opposition from environmental groups, as well as from some members of the Hualapai tribe that manages it, for obstructing the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon.
Photo: Taras Hipp/Shutterstock
Location: Chamonix, France
The Aiguille du Midi Skywalk, aka “Step into the Void,” officially opened to the public on December 21, 2013. It claims to be Europe’s tallest skywalk attraction, at a dizzying height of almost 12,605 feet.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Height: 1,014ft
This skywalk is a circular glass-floor walk around the tower’s highest point. The tower itself was featured in Mission Impossible: 2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, and Godzilla: Final Wars.
Photo: VladJ55/Shutterstock
Location: Moscow, Russia
Height: 1,600ft
This tower has been the tallest structure in Europe for the past 46 years.
Location: Shanghai, China
Height: 1,614.2ft
Skywalk 100 is currently the world’s highest observatory. Travelers get unobscured views of downtown Shanghai and the Huang Pu River.
Photo: Claudine Van Massenhove/Shutterstock
Location: Shanghai, China
Height: 1,535ft
Up to 50 guests are transported via elevator to the various levels of the tower, which acts as a dining facility, hotel, and TV transmission point. 