Daredevils in red jumpsuits can teeter around the outside edge of Canada’s tallest structure next month as the CN Tower opens a new attraction for thrill-seekers and those wanting to overcome fear. Modelled on similar attractions in Auckland, New Zealand, and Macau, China, the C$3.5 million (2.2 million pounds) EdgeWalk is an adrenaline filled excursion around an open-mesh metal walkway almost a quarter of a mile above the ground.
There’s no guard rail and no hand holds, just an uninterrupted view of the Toronto skyline and a through-the-mesh view of the ground, 1,168 feet (356 meters) beneath your feet.
Tourists are tethered to an overhead guide rail, but encouraged to tiptoe to the very edge of the platform, balance over its rim or peer through the mesh at the pinhead people below.
The tour starts with ground-level tests for explosives and alcohol, followed by safety talks and quadruple checks on safety equipment. There’s no jewellery, no cameras, no open-toed shoes and a waiver that includes the disconcerting line that “the activities involve risks and dangers that may cause serious personal injury and even death.” The outside portion of the tour lasts 20 to 30 all-too-short minutes, from the moment that glass doors open and the tourists venture, tentatively at first, onto the platform. So far nobody has chickened out of the tour, which costs C$175 ($184) a go. The 1,815-foot (553.33 metre) CN Tower, built in 1976, already boasted a glass floor on part of its viewing platform, prompting a how-much-do-you-dare game among its millions of visitors. The tower expects to recoup the money it spent installing the EdgeWalk adventure within four years.
