The first ever ferris wheel was done for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The previous worlds fair was in Paris, and the Eiffel Tower was the talk of fair. How brilliant the French were! How forward thinking. America could not be left behind. So they an American Engineer named Ferris did this wacky design where a 250-foot wheel would rotate and carry people in boxes the size of train cars.
This first Ferris wheel was HUGE. Let us compare it to the Ferris Wheel currently up on Chicago’s Navy Pier:
Why don’t we have Worlds Fairs anymore?
Because we have the olympics every two years. Say it’s only 281 days until the winter olympics! What’s the world’s largest ferris wheel? Currently the British Airways London Eye is 443 tall, built in 1999. But Las Vegas plans to put a 560 foot wheel in the middle of its casino-lined main strip. And then Shanghai plans to build a 660 foot Ferris wheel.
Wha? The Olympics have been around much longer than any Worlds Fair …
That is nuts. The ferris wheel at Navy Pier is pretty tall, but it’s crazy to think that the one at the Columbian Exposition was the FIRST one and it was crazy tall.
Have you guys read “Devil in the White City”? Excellent documentary of the 1893 fair, from conception to completion. It’ll give you a whole new perspective on Hyde Park!
Thanks for the recommendation, Chrissy! I’ll be sure to check it out. I have recently become totally fascinated by the whole concept of World’s Fairs.
I just picked up “Devil in the White City” :^D I’m looking forward to reading it! Thanks again for the recommendation, Crissy!
worlds fairs are the ultimate partys…i worked at the expo 92 in seville, spain, and again in 98 in lisbon, portugal…i just read the white city book…it is remarkable how that the fairs remane much the same…
I recently finished reading The Devil in the White City. That book is nothing but a non-fiction history book. but reads like a fictional novel. I am interested in the Columbian World’s Fair bacause Daniel Hudson Burnham, protagonist in the White City book and who was the chief architect over the Fair, designed a mansion in San Jose that I am now renovating. cheif ),
Has anyon here read “Fair Weather” by Richard Peck? Such a capital book! Pick it up and read,now!