Gatlinburg SkyBridge: Tourist Spot Undergoes Repairs After Visitor Flouts Rules And Cracks Glass Panel

Gatlinburg SkyBridge, the popular tourist attraction in Tennessee, was forced to shut down briefly after a visitor's unthoughtful action caused the glass panel, which overlooks the valley 150 below, suffer cracks. The landmark reopened less than a month ago after the state relaxed its coronavirus restrictions.

The 700-foot-long and 5-foot-wide bridge located at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, developed "noticeable cracks" on the top layer of one of its three glass panels after a metal object fell off a person’s clothing who "attempted a baseball-style slide across the glass," Gatlinburg SkyLift Park said in a news release.

The guest ignored "no running, jumping, or bouncing" rule and went on to do the adventurous move shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday (June 15), forcing it to close and undergo repairs the whole night. The bridge reopened Tuesday morning (June 16) with normal operations resuming.

According to the park, the glass panels are made of three layers of which the top layer is designed to protect the other two. They said that the damage didn’t affect the structural integrity of the bridge and no injuries were reported.

"Upon impact, a metal object on the guest's clothing chipped the glass, resulting in noticeable cracks in the protective top layer of one glass panel," Gatlinburg SkyLift Park said in the release. "No injuries occurred and guests were not in any danger."

The bridge opened just over a year ago at 765 Parkway to achieve the status of the longest suspension bridge in North America and became a subject of widespread media attention, Knox News reports.

More than a million pounds of concrete went into making the foundation of the bridge, on top of 3 miles of cable and 1,400 cedar planks to finish off the entire structure, according to CNN.

Brenna McDermott of Knox News, who visited the SkyBridge before it opened to tourists, said in her report that the bridge has a capacity of accommodating over 500 people with each weighing 400 pounds.