World’s first Ferris Wheel opened

The world’s first Ferris Wheel opened at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition. The 80.4-metre landmark became a powerful example of how major urban attractions can raise a city’s global profile and stimulate surrounding commercial development.The original Ferris Wheel, sometimes also referred to as the Chicago Wheel, was designed and built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. as the centerpiece of the Midway at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Since its construction, many other Ferris wheels have been constructed that were patterned after it. Intended as a keystone attraction similar to that of the 1889 Paris Exposition's 324-metre (1,063 ft) Eiffel Tower, the Ferris Wheel was the Columbian Exposition's tallest attraction, with a height of 80.4 metres (264 ft). The Ferris Wheel was dismantled and then rebuilt in Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1895, and dismantled and rebuilt a third and final time for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. It was ultimately demolished in 1906. In 2007, the wheel's 45 foot, 70-ton axle was reportedly discovered buried near where it was demolished