World’s Most Precarious Places

CN Tower's EdgeWalk, Toronto, Canada

"Have you ever fallen off a sidewalk?" the guide asks as six edge-walkers in red jumpsuits step out onto the sidewalk-wide platform that rings the 116th story of Toronto's landmark CN Tower. Clutching chest-harness ropes clipped into an overhead track, no one admits to it. Those who work up the nerve can curl their toes over the edge, let go, and lean out above downtown. A videographer captures the tentative shuffling as well as the "I'm king of the world!" bellows. Participants spend an hour gearing up and preparing with a safety demo and another 20 to 30 minutes outside at 1,168 feet up." The experience, now beginning its second season, runs May through October. The video footage, photos, and Total Tower Experience ticket are part of the $175 package.

Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda/Golden Rock, Myanmar

A well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site a day's drive from Yangon in Mon State, Myanmar (also known as Burma), the massive Golden Rock teeters on the peak of Mt. Kyaikhtiyo. It's the kind of impossible balancing act that affirms belief in miracles. Legend says the rock was at the bottom of the sea when a king with supernatural powers moved it to its current location and enshrined a lock of the Buddha's hair in the pagoda on top.

Devotees believe a pilgrimage here will bring good health and fortune, but the route to the top is trying. You can either cram into the back of a truck that climbs a curvy road or hike from the base's Kinpun village along a seven-mile path through thick forests. The peak, accessible only by foot, is about an hour-long trek from the parking lot where the truck unloads. Find restaurants, gift shops, and guesthouses at the summit.

Yungas Road, Bolivia

This treacherous mountain pass connecting the Amazon rainforest to the Bolivian city of La Paz is called the Road of Death. One of the most dangerous roads on earth, the 38-mile Yungas Road careens along the side of the mountain as it climbs to elevations above 15,000 feet. The drive is an insane white-knuckler: as narrow as 10 feet in spots and with drops of more than 1,000 feet straight down. There's not a single guardrail. Along many stretches there's barely enough room to inch around oncoming traffic, overloaded open-air buses, and rickety trucks carrying produce to the city. The dirt road harbors other hazards, too, like deep ruts, mud, blinding dust, and road-blocking landslides and floods from waterfalls. Roadside crosses and memorials are everywhere but represent only a fraction of the estimated 200 to 300 lives lost here each year.

Trift Bridge, Switzerland

Trift's three-plank-wide catwalk and steel cables are the only things that separate adventurous hikers from the glacial lake 330 feet below. Strung 560 feet across a windy gorge near Gadmen, Switzerland, it's one of the Alps' longest and highest suspension bridges. Even if no one in your group tries to jiggle it, windy or foggy conditions can still be unnerving. Chances are, though, you're not afraid of heights if you've made it this far. Reaching the bridge 40 miles south of Lucerne requires a ride in a freight cable car (standing room only for eight) over a ravine, plus a 90-minute hike. Trift Bridge was originally built in 2004 to reconnect hikers with the Windegg Hut made inaccessible when Trift Glacier melted and flooded the gorge. The current bridge is a 2009 replacement that sways less but still delivers a thrill and links hikers with local food and drinks in the hut.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Llangollen Canal, Wales

A few miles east of Llangollen, Wales, the world's longest and highest cast-iron aqueduct is like a theme-park log ride on stilts. The World Heritage site, built in 1805, still gives passengers the ride of their lives. Pontcysyllte carries more than 1,000 canal boats per year across a 1,000-foot span 126 feet above the River Dee. You can take a canal boat or walk across the aqueduct on a towpath. Passengers often admit to feeling queasy as the narrow boat bangs against the low metal trough, and they get a harrowing glimpse over the edge at the countryside below. There's a railing along the walkway side, but none on the boat side of the trough. Fortunately, the views are stunning enough to distract most vertigo tendencies.

Devil's Pool at Victoria Falls, Zambia

Devil's Pool, a natural rock pool dangerously close to Victoria Falls' sheer 300-foot drop in Zambia, Africa, is the popular swimming hole of death-defying tourists. During the dry season, when the river flow is safe, you can follow a guide who tells you exactly where to jump into the pool so you don't get swept over the edge of one of the seven natural wonders of the world. At the tipping point is a submerged rock formation called the Devil's Armchair, which helps hold you in the pool of water. Daring swimmers lie belly-down on it to stretch necks and arms out over the edge. It's as close as you can get to the roar, the spray, and the rainbows cast from the world's largest waterfall. Tours begin at the nearby Livingstone Island.

Top of Tyrol Platform, Austria

From the side, this observation deck atop Stubai Glacier in Tyrol, Austria, looks like a perilous high-dive platform at an altitude of 10,500 feet. That is, when it's not buried in snow. To access the cantilevered spot about an hour outside of Innsbruck, visitors (sometimes in ski boots and helmets) take the Stubaier Gletscher ski resort's Schaufeljoch cable car to the top station, then climb a staircase that follows a ridge to the suspended, steel-grate architectural marvel. It's a thrill when snow and wind threaten to sweep you away. On clear days you can spot many of the 100-plus surrounding peaks. Two other reasons to make the trip: Jochdohle at the ski resort, Austria's highest mountain restaurant, has views that reach as far as Venice, and the resort's 66-foot ice-climbing tower offers more precarious opportunities.

Xuankong Temple, China

A tiny speck clinging for dear life to the vast face of Hengshan Mountain in China's Shanxi Province, the "Hanging Temple," says legends, was built by one man: a monk named Liao Ran. Even more impressive, the temple is still hanging on, more than 1,500 years later. Xuankong perches more than 200 feet above the riverbed below, about 250 miles southwest of Beijing and 40 miles from the closest city, Datong. Skinny stilts and crossbeams driven into holes in the rock keep this cluster of yellow-topped pagodas and slim footpaths in place. Inside, there are 40 rooms, including the one in the highest story that is revered for the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian sculptures enshrined together. Known for its sacred sites, Hengshan Mountain is home to 12 temples and several other spiritually significant places within walking distance of each other.

Atlanterhavsveien, Norway

The five-mile Atlantic Ocean Road (Atlanterhavsveien) between western Norway's Kristiansund and Molde is like a whip of warm taffy that hardened midair in suspended curves over the Atlantic, nimbly touching down on little western islands. If only construction had been that easy. Before the road opened in 1989, workers faced 12 hurricanes while building the country's construction marvel of the century. You get the roller-coaster feeling driving over humps that crest and swoop quickly, but the drive is even more thrilling when you're battling wild winter weather and autumn's hurricanes. Churning waves explode against the road in unpredictable fits, interrupting visibility with deluges and spray. When storms calm, you might spot seals or whales from observation points. Little villages, fishing spots, and other attractions along the route are also worth exploring.

Meteora Monasteries, Greece

Like a futuristic scene in a fantasy novel, these Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece's Pindus Mountains seem impossibly placed atop towering stone pinnacles. Meteora means "suspended in air," an apt description for a cluster of buildings isolated at heights that reach 1,320 feet above the ground. Hermit monks built 24 monasteries in the 14th century as a refuge from Turkish invaders. Up until about 100 years ago, they were accessible only by rope ladder or hoisted nets. Now visitors can follow steps cut into the daunting rock, ride up a cable car, or scale Meteora's walls like James Bond did in the movie For Your Eyes Only. Today, only six monasteries remain. They can be visited at this UNESCO World Heritage site. Stay in nearby Kalambaka or in the village of Kastraki at the base of Meteora.

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