A former astronaut and elders of the HUalapai tribe took the ceremonial first steps on a glass-bottomed walkway perched 4,000 feet over the Grand Canyon that promises dizzying views for those who dare.Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, 77, strode out onto the $40 million skywalk, built by a private developer with the permission of the Hualapai tribe, whose ancestral lands abut the remote southwest rim of the Arizona canyon. The project has stirred controversy on the Hualapai Reservation, where backers say it will create valuable jobs but opponents condemn it as a desecration of a sacred landscape.The horseshoe-shaped steel pathway, which is paved with 90 tonnes of toughened glass, is due to open on March 28 to tourists who will pay $25 each to tread their way around the glass arc, which is bolted to the lip of the plunging canyon.Supporters say the walkway will create hundreds of jobs for tribal members on the reservation, where poverty is rife and unemployment stands at around 50 per cent.
