Ferris Wheel Was Our Answer to Eiffel Tower

By Sam Ewing

Did you ever wonder how the "Ferris wheel" got its name? Or wonder how this still-favorite old ride came about? Then read on!

In 1893, despite a nationwide economic depression, the Worlds Fair was scheduled to open in Chicago. With business sagging like the seal of a clown's baggy pants. the sponsors of this "World's Colombian Exposition)" were desperate for a super attraction.

Four years earlier; the Eiffel Tower had astounded the world at the Paris Exposition. hungry for a headline-making wonder of their own, promoters of the upcoming Chicago fair challenged the civil engineers of America to design something that would captivate the public. That challenge fired the imagination of a talented young engineer named George Washington Gale Ferris.

Ferris conceived the farfetched idea of constructing a gigantic, power-driven wheel that would lift hundreds of people into the air simultaneously.

''I'll build a wheel so big it will put the whole world in a spin!'' He reported to have claimed.

It took a white for the confident mechanical engineer in his mid-20s from Galesburg, Illinois to sell his idea to the exposition's sponsors. Some thought this is who described a ''spinning wheel with rocking chairs attached'' was slight off his own rocker.

The exposition sponsors finally gave Ferris the go-ahead, it was a decision they would never regret.

When Ferris put the mammoth wheel on the midway, it stopped the show.

Chicagoans and visitors alike gaped in amazement at the spectacular mammoth ride. And well they should have.

What a Wheel It Was

The first Ferris wheel was the grand-daddy of them all. Weighing in at an incredible 1.200 tons. it was supported by huge towers reaching 140 ft. into the sky. It was 250 ft. in diameter. 825 ft. in circumference and 30 ft. wide.

There were 36 passenger cabs, each capable of seating 60 thrill-seekers.. That meant as many as 2,160 people could take to the air on a single ride!

Ferris' big wheel soon proved to he the sensation of the exposition--long lines of eager fair-goers waited hours for a chance to climb aboard.

Just as the farsighted inventor had predicted. news of his entertainment miracle set the whole world talking. Even the French had In admit the attraction made more of a splash than their vaunted tower.

Biggest Ever Built

Though Ferris wheels have been spinning at carnival and amusement parks ever since, there never has been a bigger wheel than the one George Ferris built nearly 100 years ago.

The mammoth wheel was used again at the l904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The ride saw little use after that, and was eventually disassembled and sold for scrap metal.

Published in Reminisce Magazine March 1992