Walking Facts

When you walk down a steep hill, the pressure on your knees can be up to three times your body weight.

There are times when you're walking that the pressure on your feet exceeds your body weight, and when you're running, it can be three or four times your weight.

A person will burn 7 percent more calories if they walk on hard dirt compared to pavement.

The Mackinac Bridge is Michigan's five-mile 'Mighty Mac.' Every day, only cars are allowed on it. Except one: every Labor Day, Michigan closes it to cars and opens it to walkers. The first walk, in 1958, drew just 68 people. For decades, two lanes stayed open to cars during the walk. Since 2017, all of them close, and walkers get the whole bridge to themselves. Now 40,000 to 65,000 show up every year, with a record 85,000 in one morning.

Plennie Wingo walked backwards out of Fort Worth in 1931, with mirrors fixed to his glasses and postcards at a quarter to pay his way, until Turkish police jailed him at the border and an American consul talked him into coming home from Istanbul. Guinness still lists the 8,000-mile trek as the longest walk ever made backwards.