From the Rockies to the Alps, there is a growing demand for a new dimension in the way we take in the scenery.
Led by the Chinese, there are now glass platforms, walkways and bridges appearing in spectacular locations all around the world. These are some of the best ones out there.
At an altitude of 3,842m, this 12mm-thick triple-layered glass box claims to be the highest attraction in Europe and is the closest you can get to Mont Blanc without crampons. It looks down on the Bossons Glacier – and the souvenir selfie makes it look like you’re floating in air.
This terrifying 430m walkway sits 300m above a lush mountain valley and is currently the world's longest glass bridge. To prove its safety, a car was driven over it after one of the panels was smashed with a sledgehammer.
This U-shaped walkway juts out 100ft from the rocks, giving visitors a chance to look straight down over a near-1,000ft drop at its outermost point. If you look up, you also get stunning views of the Canadian Rockies.
Opened: November, 2011 (most recent path opened August, 2016)
Clinging to vertical cliffs at an altitude of 1.4km, this jaw-dropping walkway includes three incredible glass sections – including the 100m-long 'Coiled Dragon Cliff'. It can be found just 85km from the Zhangjiajie glass bridge.
This aerial wonderland sits at 2,700m in the Alps and consists of a glass bottomed viewing platform, a suspension bridge and the 'Stairway to Nothingness' – an infeasible looking precipice of 14 steps offers a dramatic view over the Dachstein Glacier.
This glass floor cable car gives an adrenalin rush as it climbs up over the harbour and the forested mountains on a 5.7km ride to the giant Tian Tan Buddha. But perhaps more scary is that one empty cabin fell off in a test back in 2007 – although the operators were changed after that incident...
Location: Between Dodgevill and Spring Green, Wisconsin
Opened: 1985
The Infinity Room juts out 66m from the bizarre curiosity complex called House on the Rock. Envisioned by Alex Jordan in the 1940s, it has 3,264 windows and is counter balanced by 100m of concrete, with a glass section looking down 47m to the valley below.
Location: Shiniuzhai National Geopark, Pingjiang county, Hunan, China
Opened: September, 2015
Some 180m above the valley floor, this 300m structure is named 'Brave Men's Bridge' and not for nothing. Originally constructed out of wood, it now has 24mm thick glass panes and can carry 800 visitors at a time.
