A walkway through the Aiguille du Midi near Chamonix, France

© Jakub Połomski/Offse

Altitude adjustment in the Alps. A view from the top

The Aiguille du Midi in eastern France is one of many peaks in the Mont Blanc massif, an Alpine range that stretches across the border into Italy and Switzerland. In 1909, an aerial tramway was proposed to take tourists from Chamonix, the valley town below, to the top of the Aiguille du Midi—a plan finally realized in 1955. The cable cars and viewing platform were upgraded most recently in 2012, and a new feature called ‘Step into the Void’ was added. It allows tourists to stand in a glass room jutting out from the mountain and look down through the glass floor with more than 3,000 feet of free air under their feet.