Alpine Abyss: 'Stairway to Nothingness' Opens in Austria

The suspension bridge and glass platform offer spectacular views of the Alps.

ByABC News
July 7, 2013, 5:35 PM
The Dachstein Suspension Bridge with views over Austria's loftiest peaks and 400 metres down over the sheer rock face of the Dachstein massif.
The Dachstein Suspension Bridge with views over Austria's loftiest peaks and 400 metres down over the sheer rock face of the Dachstein massif.
Dachstein Gletscherbahn

July 7, 2013— -- An Austrian resort opened a new attraction for andrenaline junkies on Wednesday. The suspension bridge and glass platform offer spectacular views of the Alps, but at such dizzying heights that only the bravest are likely to test their mettle.

Anyone with a fear of heights should steer clear of a new attraction on the Dachstein Massif, an Alpine peak in Austria.

The freshly inaugurated suspension bridge near the town of Schladming leads to fourteen steps down a cliff, ending on a glass platform that highlights vertigo-inducing views of the mountain landscape below. The "stairway to nothingness" is only for visitors with "nerves of steel," the Dachstein Glacier resort's website reads.

Their reward, however, is the "pure freedom" of hovering above a 400-meter (1,300-foot) drop while taking in the spectacular landscape of the Austrian Alps.

The 100-meter-long bridge, which opened on Wednesday after six months of construction, is the highest in Austria, according to the resort.