A wiow's walk (or roofwalk) is a railed rooftop platform, typically on a coastal house, originally designed to observe vessels at sea. The name comes from the wives of mariners, who would watch for their spouses' return. In some instances, the ocean took the lives of the mariners, leaving the women as widows. The women would often thereafter gaze out to sea wishing beyond hope that their loved ones would return home and hence the name widow's walk was born.