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Sears Tower glass balconies not for the faint of heart
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Glass balconies extend from the 103rd floor observation deck of the Sears Tower in Chicago. AP Photo/Kichiro Sato
Think back to Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Jimmy’s character had a horrific fear of heights. Glancing down from any high vantage point sent his mind spinning, stopping him in his tracks. While vertigo isn’t actually a fear of heights, but is instead a problem with the signals sent to the brain by the inner ear in conjunction with one’s visual perception. Vertigo often occurs when the fluid sloshing through the semicircular canals doesn’t match one’s perceived position and results in a sudden lack of balance, perhaps a room-spinning dizzy spell, and even nausea.
It is a fact that even small animals, when placed on a sheet of glass several feet above the ground, are able to perceive the danger of “falling” and will hold still, unmoving, until they discern by feel where they can move without falling, even on the clear glass surface. Now step out onto one of those new glass balconies where even the floor of the balcony is sparklingly clear on the 103rd floor observation deck of the Sears Tower, and listen to your heart pound.
This also brings to mind the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when on blind faith, Indy steps out into apparent nothingness to discover that the yawning chasm actually consists of a bridge that disappears through the crafting of an optical illusion.
I applaud those able to conquer their fear and step out over Chicago, 1,353 feet above the city’s streets, but I have no plans to do so myself. I haven’t even made it over to the Reunion Tower here in Dallas, a mere 560 feet high at its peak, and its observation deck, still under renovation and closed to the public as of this date, is slightly lower at about 500 feet.
For more info: Balance disorders, Vertigo
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