
For more than a century, the Ferris wheel has captured people’s imaginations as a universal symbol of entertainment and spectacle. Today, Ferris wheels come in a variety of sizes and can be found in cities, fairs, and amusement parks all over the world.
However, not as much is known about the Ferris wheel’s past. Who created the “Chicago Wheel” and what served as their inspiration? The story is told in this CBS Sunday Morning video.

The original Ferris wheel was constructed in Chicago, Illinois, for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, as its name implies. Daniel Burnham, the director of Exposition, was presented with the bold idea of a massive metal wheel by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., a visionary structural engineer. The structure was intended to rival the famous Eiffel Tower.

It is said that Ferris was inspired by observing a water wheel. However, even with his structure’s original materials and scale, he wasn’t the first to invent the wheel. According to Smithsonian Magazine:
…a carpenter named William Somers was building 50-foot wooden wheels at Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Coney Island; a roundabout, he called it, and he’d even patented his design. But Ferris had not only been challenged to think big; the huge attendance expected at the fair inspired him to bet big. He spent $25,000 of his own money on safety studies, hired more engineers, recruited investors. On December 16, 1892, his wheel was chosen to answer Eiffel. It measured 250 feet in diameter, and carried 36 cars, each capable of holding 60 people.
Over the course of the fair, over 1.4 million people seized the opportunity to take in the breathtaking views of Lake Michigan and Chicago from an elevation of 80 meters (264 feet) thanks to Chicago’s Ferris wheel, which provided fairgoers with an unprecedented 10-to 20-minute ride.
More than 120 massive Ferris wheels, including gigantic observation wheels in Dubai, Las Vegas, London, Singapore, throughout China, and more, continue to amaze riders, despite the fact that it was sold to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1904 World’s Fair and destroyed for scrap metal in 1906.


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Man's Blood Helped Save Millions of Babies
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Remembering the 1945 Empire State Building Disaster: When a Plane Met Skyscraper
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The history of Flour sack clothing fashion
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The youngest person executed, George Stinney Jr was proven innocent
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Ancient Jericho: The First Walled City In History
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George Dantzig solved two famous “unsolved” problems in statistics mistakenly as assignment
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The Arabia Steamboat: Unearthing a 19th Century Time Capsule from the Missouri River
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Medieval Medicine: A 1,000-year-old onion and garlic salve kills modern bacterial superbugs
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Why the Brooklyn Bridge Was Once Crossed by 17 Camels and 21 Elephants
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The day Iceland's women went on strike
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Top 10 most cruel medical procedures that are being used today
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Louis Le Prince Invented the motion picture camera, and then he mysteriously disappeared
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Sylvan Goldman: The Visionary Who Revolutionized Shopping with the Cart
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What is the story behind Wrigley chewing gum?
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8 Interesting Facts About The Unsinkable Ship, TITANIC
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Moondyne Joe: The story of Australia's most notorious prison escapee
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The Tragic Story Of Mary Ann Bevan, The ‘Ugliest Woman In The World’
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Nicholas Winton ‘British Schindler’: Man who rescued 669 Czech children from Nazis
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Why This Belgian Bar Makes You Trade Your Shoe for a Beer
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How Sleep Deprivation Was Once Used as Torture
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Saudi Arabia camel carvings dated to prehistoric era
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The Amazing Truth About The German U-Boat That Was Sunk By A Toilet
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Titanoboa cerrejonensis, fossils of the world’s largest species of snake
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During the 1996 Olympic bombing, Richard Jewell falsely accused of committing the crime after saving dozens of people
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