Yahoo! reporter looks over the edge at the CN Tower’s new EdgeWalk tourist attraction

Why stand on a glass ceiling when you can walk out on a ledge 356 metres above the ground and see Toronto from a whole new vantage point?

While EdgeWalk doesn't officially open to the public until Aug. 1, a group of journalists got the chance to preview Canada's newest tourist attraction.

Before riding up the elevator, we get a safety briefing, which includes a breathalyzer. You definitely don't want to be stumping around up there. Once passing the test, we put on walk suits and harnesses. One of the workers joked that while they look like jump suits, they can only be called walk suits.

Even riding up the rocket ship of an elevator my knees were shaking. Then all of a sudden the doors opened and one by one we slowly inched toward the edge.

Once outside participants are encouraged by guides to push their limits by leaning over the 116-storey ledge and looking straight down over the city.

This means leaning backward over the edge and looking down and also doing the Titanic pose. As I became more comfortable on the edge, I began to enjoy the amazing view.

I was seeing building and scenery that I've seen my whole life, but I've never seen them like this before.

As the 150-metre walk was wrapping up, most people in my group of five didn't want to go inside. We were jealous of our guide Brian for getting to do this all the time.

"We have a history of innovation, we are always looking for ways to reinvent ourselves, refresh our product offering," said Lisa Tompkins, director of marketing and communications for the CN Tower, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary.

She said they looked at similar experiences at other tall towers and thought how it could be adapted to the CN Tower.

The other towers she is referring to are in Auckland, New Zealand and Macau, China, but those towers have the added feature of people being able to jump from the ledge.

"I don't think there are plans to be able to jump off the tower at this point," said Tompkins. "This is the most extreme experience in our history . . . we are probably twice as high as the higher of those two."

The walk around the 1.5-metre-wide plank takes 20 to 30 minutes, but the total duration of the activity is about 90 minutes. Much of the extra time is to make sure participants are correctly strapped in.

About 2,000 tickets have been sold since going on sale June 1 and they expect to sell another 2,000 tickets this year.

EdgeWalk will be open to the public between May 1 and Oct. 31 and is not open after dark. It costs $175 per person.