Dealing With Six Hundred and Eighty Feet of Acrophobia
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (62474)
United States
May 11, 2022 8:32pm CST
Last year, if you remember, when I came to the Smokies (for what turned out to be my only trip here), I decided to face my acrophobia. (That’s a fear of heights…I won’t make you look it up. 
)
Dealing with acrophobia in 2022 was a whole lot more expansive and intense than just taking a five-minute ride in an enclosed Ferris wheel gondola. This time I went on a chair lift to the Gatlinburg Sky Bridge.
The Sky Bridge is the longest pedestrian cable bridge on earth. It’s 680 feet long.
AND it’s nearly 200 feet off the ground.
AND some smart aleck thought it’d be funny to put thirty feet of glass in the middle of the bridge so you could look ALL. THE. WAY. DOWN.
But, if you can believe it, I did it.
I went up the chair lift. I walked THREE suspension bridges (two that were linked to the Tulip Tower, a multi-level viewing platform that remembers the deadly 2016 wildfire that destroyed the original chairlift). Then I went DOWN the chair lift.
Am I cured? Of course not. However, the incredible beauty of the mountains in full green regalia as spring settles in certainly helped take my mind off the “elephant in the room” (or on the bridge in this case).
Would I do it again? YES. I also recommend it for anyone (acrophobic or not) who’s in the area. The scenery and views are incredible.
)
Dealing with acrophobia in 2022 was a whole lot more expansive and intense than just taking a five-minute ride in an enclosed Ferris wheel gondola. This time I went on a chair lift to the Gatlinburg Sky Bridge.
The Sky Bridge is the longest pedestrian cable bridge on earth. It’s 680 feet long.
AND it’s nearly 200 feet off the ground.
AND some smart aleck thought it’d be funny to put thirty feet of glass in the middle of the bridge so you could look ALL. THE. WAY. DOWN.
But, if you can believe it, I did it.
I went up the chair lift. I walked THREE suspension bridges (two that were linked to the Tulip Tower, a multi-level viewing platform that remembers the deadly 2016 wildfire that destroyed the original chairlift). Then I went DOWN the chair lift.
Am I cured? Of course not. However, the incredible beauty of the mountains in full green regalia as spring settles in certainly helped take my mind off the “elephant in the room” (or on the bridge in this case).
Would I do it again? YES. I also recommend it for anyone (acrophobic or not) who’s in the area. The scenery and views are incredible.13 people like this
12 responses
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
It’s so beautiful up there I had plenty to occupy my mind instead of the heights and the bridge. The cool thing was coming down and going over the creek. I felt like a drone!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (326170)
• Rockingham, Australia
13 May 22
@FourWalls Haha - I've never heard anyone compare themselves to a drone before. Lucky I know what sort of drone you mean.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (95779)
• Marion, Ohio
12 May 22
I only have a small fear of heights. But I that stretch of glass would bother me a lot
2 people like this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
I passed a couple of people walking the other way and they were having problems there, too.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
12 May 22
I can manage swinging bridges as long as I can hold onto the side of the bridge. (I do get upset if people start making the bridge bounce or swing, though.) That glass central portion might cause me some problems, though. (I have trouble looking out of windows in a skyscraper. Or over a cliff if the person taking the video is too close to the edge for my liking.)
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
I don’t know what the cause is. A combination of acrophobia, fluid behind my ear, and common sense, I guess.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
@DaddyEvil — yes, I’ve seen it and the reactions. Some of those people are genuinely terrified, which makes it no longer funny.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
12 May 22
@FourWalls Yup! That's why I believe a truly evil person designed the bridge.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (40622)
• United States
12 May 22
Good for you! You should be very proud of yourself.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
13 May 22
Take a look at that view and how could I keep from going up there????
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
13 May 22
@1creekgirl — absolutely. All you an see is the two-dimensional photo. You can’t hear the birds or the water, or smell the sweet spring air. It’s far more magnificent in person.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (40622)
• United States
13 May 22
@FourWalls It really is stunning and even more magnificent in person I'm sure.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
It’s one of my favorite live cameras on You Tube, especially in the autumn with the colors changing.
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
Thanks. It was a beautiful time in the park. I still don’t want to get close to edges, but it was kinda fun!
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (45594)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
12 May 22
Glass in the floor? So you could look down? 
Like, ya can't see down over the handrails? Yeah, that'd be something a smart aleck would think necessary.
Like, ya can't see down over the handrails? Yeah, that'd be something a smart aleck would think necessary.1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
Exactly. They ought to put that guy’s desk right over that glass. 
There’s a glass-bottom scenic platform in the Grand Canyon, too. But there’s a whole lot more to look at there than dry grass. (To be fair, it’s a few miles further down in the Grand Canyon than it was here, too.)
There’s a glass-bottom scenic platform in the Grand Canyon, too. But there’s a whole lot more to look at there than dry grass. (To be fair, it’s a few miles further down in the Grand Canyon than it was here, too.)1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
13 May 22
It’s funny, when I was coming down on the chairlift I went over a creek and thought, oh, this is what a drone does! 
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (94913)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
12 May 22
I also have a fear of heights myself.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
When I fell off a chair hanging curtains a couple of months ago it seems my fear was justified.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (94913)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
12 May 22
@FourWalls I understand that the landing from a fall is more painful that the fall from the height of where the fall started.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (157337)
• United States
12 May 22
Kudos to you for doing it; but there's no way I could walk that suspension bridge. I would have had a heart attack.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
There’s a swinging bridge at Rock City/Lookout Mountain that helped instill my fear of those things. When I was a kid and tried to walk across it some older brats would jump and make it sway.
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (34421)
•
21 May 22
You had the beauty of nature to take your mind off your fear of heights. I also suffer from height fears. And fear of falling from up there, lol.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
21 May 22
That’s part of the acrophobia issue: being afraid of falling….even from the top of a stepladder.
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (34421)
•
24 May 22
@FourWalls Ha, ha. You took the words out of my scared mouth 
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62474)
• United States
12 May 22
There’s a Boz Scaggs song on one of his albums that says, “Do like you do in New York City: don’t look down.” That’s what I did….(or didn’t do )
)1 person likes this
@CarolDM (203451)
• Nashville, Tennessee
12 May 22
@FourWalls I don't blame you at all.
1 person likes this
