National Ferris Wheel Day 2020

In addition to Valentine’s Day, February 14th is the annual observance of National Ferris Wheel Day. The 14th of February is the birth day of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr, the inventor of the Ferris Wheel. Juliet Lamar visited Pacific Park to talk to some Ferris Wheel riders and provided this short video on her Instagram.

The Ferris wheel was first introduced to the world at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Wheel was a center piece of this world’s fair designed and erected to rival the Eiffel Tower which wowed festival attendees in Paris just a few years earlier. George Ferris’ monumental wheel towered 26 stories over Chicago and costs over $725,000 in 1893. Each gondola was the size of train car and carried as many as 60 passengers each.

The Wheel weighed 2,079,884 pounds and when carrying the maximum live load of 2,160 passengers a weighing, say, 140 pounds each, the total weight in motion would have been 2,382, 244 pounds or 1,191 tons.

The original wheel only operated for a few years and in 1906, it was destroyed with dynamite for scrap metal. But the concept has lived on and Ferris wheels continue to be enjoyed around the world.

Thanks to the Santa Monica Mirror for providing the video above and quick snippet and background on the Ferris wheel.

Feature image courtesy of @jonywashere.