Science Simplified!

                       JAI VIGNAN

All about Science - to remove misconceptions and encourage scientific temper

Communicating science to the common people

'To make  them see the world differently through the beautiful lense of  science'

Why does it feel strange to walk on a glass bridge?

Q: Why does it feel strange to walk on a glass bridge?

Krishna: Yes, first watch these videos  to understand how people feel 

It can feel strange to walk on a glass bridge because it disrupts your brain's normal balancing mechanisms, triggering primal fears and a sense of unease.
Even I feel this. My cousin has a glass flooring (bridge ?) on his rooftop. It took a lot of convincing my brain to accept that it is okay to walk on it and then practicing walking on it. 
This is because of 
The disruption of visual cues:
Your sense of balance relies on a combination of visual, vestibular (inner ear), and proprioceptive (body position) signals. When you step onto a glass bridge, the visual signals are suddenly different, creating a conflict. 
Vertigo and disequilibrium: The vast, open space and movement far below your feet can distort your perception of depth and distance. Your brain receives conflicting information from your eyes, which see the abyss, and your feet, which feel solid ground. This mismatch can trigger feelings of vertigo, dizziness, and instability.
Loss of a fixed horizon: A stable visual horizon is a primary way your brain maintains balance. When you look down through a transparent floor, that stable reference point disappears, which can make your body feel unstable and affect your posture.
Primal fear and the "lizard brain":
Even if you know a glass bridge is engineered to be perfectly safe, your primal, instinctual brain responds differently. 
Acrophobia (fear of heights): An encounter with a glass bridge can trigger or exacerbate a pre-existing fear of heights. This fear is a deep-seated survival instinct that can override your rational mind.
Imagined danger: Your mind can create worst-case scenarios, imagining the glass shattering or the bridge collapsing. These thoughts, whether conscious or subconscious, release adrenaline and activate your "fight-or-flight" response, causing physical anxiety symptoms.
The physical sensation:
The strange feeling is not just psychological; it's also a physical, sensory response.
Altered movement: Some people report physical sensations like tingling, fuzzy legs, and involuntary muscle contractions. This is your nervous system reacting to the visual distortion, causing your body to trick itself into feeling as though it might fall.
The bouncing effect: Many modern suspension bridges, including those with glass, are designed to have a small amount of flexibility to handle wind and weight. That subtle bounce, while a sign of a properly engineered structure, can add to the feeling of instability and unease for some people.
Special effects (for some bridges):
On some tourist attractions, the strange feeling is intentionally enhanced for entertainment. For example, some glass bridges in China feature special effects that make the glass appear to "crack" and "shatter" with accompanying sound effects, which is designed to be a heart-pounding thrill. 
Even after several attempts, I still feel strange to walk on my cousin's glass floor.  
Our brains play games with us!
Yes!
Postural balance depends on how vestibular, proprioceptive and visual systems equally impact the central nervous system. Balance is constructed through a multi sensorial experience where sensations of weight, contact, touch and hearing have equal sensory input to visual cues. If we rely too heavily on visual cues, which are thrown into distortion when looking down from a great height, our bodies can feel unstable. Somatic movement practices encourage multi-sensory awareness. 
 Situations perceived as threatening, such as an acrophobic experience, can cause states of hyper arousal, ‘preparing us to flee, fight, freeze’ or hypo arousal states where we shut down, ‘become still and immobile’ . Creating a window of tolerance is highly important.
How about closing your eyes, holding someone's hand and walking on glass? You feel okay this way.
This research paper gives you more tips to overcome the fear: