Today marks the birthday of the Ferris wheel – on June 21, 1893, visitors to the World’s Fair in Chicago took their first ride on this iconic attraction. Following the spectacular success of the Eiffel Tower, the “crown jewel” of the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, the organizers of the Chicago exhibition sought to create a structure that could serve as the event’s signature landmark.
The announced competition for this concept didn’t yield much – engineers were eager to propose building an even taller tower, but it was George Ferris from Illinois who suggested constructing a massive wheel with passenger cabins. The organizers were skeptical about the young engineer’s idea and refused to fund the project, forcing Ferris to seek out investors on his own to bring his vision to life.
The parts for the attraction 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 could accommodate up to 60 people, and during the fair, around 1.5 million visitors took a ride on the wheel, generating nearly $730,000 in profit for the organizers – an astonishing sum for that era!