Afraid of heights? Then you’ll be horrified with the Ledge, a series of glass balconies at the Skydeck in Chicago, where you can enjoy a view of the city that’s never been seen before – 1,353 feet straight down.
The balconies extend 4.3 feet from the Sears Tower’s walls, right on the 103rd floor of the popular skyscraper. From there, visitors can stand (in horror, we presume) and get an unobstructed view of the city, all while doing their best to keep themselves from throwing up. Those unaffected by the nauseating height can probably enjoy the scenery as well, which span a 50-mile horizon over four states.
All the balconies are fully enclosed glass boxes held between conveyor belts that can fully retract into the building. Yep, they’re basically pop-out glass balconies that sit 1,353 feet above the street in the Windy City – not exactly my idea of the safest place on earth. My paranoid imagination just keeps creating images of me standing there with seven sumo wrestlers, two of whom are jumping up and down. Aaargh.
According to its creators, the inspiration for the Ledge came from Skydeck visitors themselves, many of whom press their faces to the windows trying to catch sight of the view below. With the see-through flooring, window cleaners will finally be free of having to wipe those nasty forehead marks and can look forward to new job description of cleaning puke off the floor.
The nausea-inducing and wickedly cool Skydeck Ledge opened to the July 2nd 2009.