A Challenge to Dream Bigger
In 1890, architect Daniel Burnham faced an enormous task: transforming a swampy area of Chicago into the stage for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. France had stunned the world with the Eiffel Tower at its 1889 exposition, and America had nothing to match it.
Burnham urged his assembled engineers to “make no little plans” and demanded something “novel, original, daring and unique” to crown the fair. Among them was George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., a 33-year-old bridge builder and steel expert from Pittsburgh. Inspired by the challenge, Ferris envisioned a gigantic steel wheel that would lift passengers high into the sky.
A Wheel Like No Other
Ferris wasn’t the first to imagine a rotating wheel for amusement. Carpenter William Somers had already patented 50-foot wooden “roundabouts” at resorts like Atlantic City. But Ferris aimed far higher. He sketched a 250-foot-diameter steel wheel, carried on a 140-foot tower, with 36 enclosed cars, each capable of holding 60 people.
Burnham doubted the design’s strength, calling it too fragile. Ferris pressed on anyway, investing $25,000 of his own money, hiring engineers, and conducting safety studies. On December 16, 1892, his plan was approved. The final structure included over 100,000 parts, among them an 89,320-pound axle—the largest piece of steel ever forged in America at the time.
An Instant Triumph
The Ferris Wheel debuted on June 21, 1893. It was unlike anything ever built in the United States. For 50 cents, fairgoers experienced a 20-minute ride offering a panoramic view of the exposition grounds and the city of Chicago. It carried thousands of passengers daily.
By the end of the fair’s 19-week run, 1.4 million people had taken the ride. A journalist, Robert Graves, described the sensation of rising through the air in “a bird cage” as indescribable. The wheel captivated the public and became the fair’s defining attraction.
From Fame to Ruin
After the exposition ended, Ferris found himself entangled in financial disputes. He fought lawsuits over unpaid debts and alleged money owed to him by the fair’s organizers. Amid the legal turmoil, his health declined. In 1896, he died of typhoid fever at age 37, bankrupt and embattled.
His great wheel was dismantled, moved to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and finally destroyed with dynamite in 1906. Though the original Ferris Wheel no longer stands, Ferris’s invention became a global amusement park fixture, replicated and reinvented in cities and fairs worldwide. His bold answer to Eiffel’s iron tower forever altered the skyline of public entertainment.
In 1890, Chicago was preparing for the World’s Columbian Exposition, but no one had an answer to the Eiffel Tower.
Architect Daniel Burnham demanded something bold.
One engineer, George Ferris, responded with a plan for a giant revolving wheel that stunned everyone…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/YZmUHXLmpM
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) June 26, 2025