Gaby
June 21, 1893: visitors at the World’s Fair in Chicago took the first ride on what would become the Ferris wheel. After the Eiffel Tower emerged as the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, Chicago’s organizers wanted a landmark of their own.
When the organizers announced a design competition, most engineers pushed to build an even taller tower. But George Ferris, an engineer from Illinois, proposed a giant wheel with passenger cabins. The organizers were skeptical and refused to fund the project, so Ferris turned to private investors to bring his idea to life.
The parts were manufactured in Detroit and shipped by train to Chicago. The wheel measured 80 meters in diameter and rode on an axle nearly 14 meters long. Each of the 36 cabins could hold up to 60 people, and during the fair about 1.5 million visitors rode the wheel, generating nearly $730,000 in profit for the organizers—an astonishing sum for the time.
