Grand Canyon Skywalk Controversy

It's a marvel of modern engineering, for sure. Not so sure is whether its construction is good or bad for the one of the world's greatest wonders, the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk juts out more than 60 feet from the rim, some 4,000 feet above the canyon floor.

It cost $30 million and took three years to build.

The Skywalk is built on one part of the one-million-acre Hualapai Reservation, in remote northwestern Arizona. The Grand Canyon attracts millions of visitors a year, almost all of them to the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. Just a few thousand visitors a year venture to the West Rim, where the Skywalk is located.

It's an engineering marvel, for sure. And a controversial one, as well.

Is this just another tacky tourist attraction that will bring crowds and traffic jams and tacky t-shirt shops and air pollution to one of the most remote and beautiful places in the USA, even the world?

Is this a stroke of genius that will allow visitors to get a better appreciation of the Grand Canyon, away from the choking crowds and tacky souvenir shops at the main village on the South Rim?

Does the Skywalk descecrate the land or improve it?

Will it increase interest in geology, archeology, wildlife, botany, history, environmental conservation?

Will it improve the economy and lifestyle of the impoverished Hualapais and ensure their survival?

Will the economic impact spill over to the Hualapai's neighbors, the Havasupai, many of whom live in a remote village at the bottom of Havasu Canyon -- and help ensure their survival?

What do you think?