June 21, 1893: visitors to Chicago’s World’s Fair took the first ride on the Ferris wheel. After the Eiffel Tower stole the spotlight at the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, Chicago’s organizers wanted a landmark that could serve as the exhibition’s calling card.
A design competition didn’t help — engineers mostly proposed building an even taller tower. Only George Ferris, an engineer from Illinois, suggested a massive wheel with passenger cabins. The organizers weren’t convinced and refused to fund the project, so Ferris raised the money himself.
The wheel’s parts were manufactured in Detroit and transported by train to Chicago. The wheel measured 80 meters in diameter and was mounted on an axle nearly 14 meters long. Each of the 36 cabins held up to 60 people, and about 1.5 million visitors rode the wheel during the exposition, bringing the organizers nearly $730,000 in profit — a staggering sum for the time.
