Spinning wheel goes round and round

February 12, 2009 12:25 PM

We are in the midst of a Ferris wheel craze. In 2009."This year, Germany will unveil the Great Berlin Wheel. Upon its completion, the wheel will be 606 feet high — as high as two football fields are long, as high as three Niagara Falls. It will be taller than what’s currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, the Singapore Flyer, a soon-to-be-disappointing 541 feet high. This year, China also plans to unveil the Beijing Great Wheel. At an awesome 682 feet high, it will be taller than both the Great Berlin Wheel and the Singapore Flyer (which only debuted as the world’s tallest Ferris wheel last year) ... China has, in fact, built wheels in six cities since the start of the new millennium."
posted by geoff. (52 comments total)

When they turn the area around Nelson's Column into the world's biggest, coolest bumper car attraction, let me know...
posted by markkraft at 12:28 PM on February 12

and dont forget the luxury wheel in St. Louis
The Rodgers brothers are pursuing a proposal to place 175’ tall “luxury” observation wheel on Laclede’s Landing. At the base of the wheel (which uses fully enclosed, air-conditioned gondolas), the brothers plan a gathering facility suitable for corporate events. This proposal has the support of the Laclede’s Landing business district, Pinnacle Entertainment, CVC Director Kitty Ratcliffe, and Alderwoman Phyllis Young. Similar installations are located in Niagara Falls, New York and on California’s Santa Monica Pier. (This is probably the most interesting TIF proposal the City has ever received, and we are looking forward to working through the challenges presented — e.g., is an observation wheel real property? Is it personal property?)
http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display-print.asp?deskID=1075
posted by robbyrobs at 12:30 PM on February 12

I'm just hoping for video of Singaporean and Chinese Orson Welles impersonators doing Harry Lime's speech here.
posted by RogerB at 12:31 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

So is this one of those deals where 100% of the time is spent loading people on and off the cars? Really when you get beyond a diameter of 100 or 200 ft, you rapidly exhaust the fun of the wheel since you have to load an entire city onto the wheel. What they need is a way for the wheel to slowly snatch a set of preloaded cars fed onto a pickup rail and take everyone for a ride. Increase the turnover and profit and so forth. But no one consults me about this stuff.
posted by crapmatic at 12:33 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]

I don't understand, how will this help them invade Poland?
posted by orthogonality at 12:34 PM on February 12

I don't understand, how will this help them invade Poland?

LOLGERMANY
posted by !Jim at 12:36 PM on February 12

That Berlin Wheel is absolutely gorgeous.

It's like a cross between a mandhala and Minority Report.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 12:42 PM on February 12

MetaFilter snarks, naturally, but giant Ferris wheels are just about the most interesting national pissing contest I can imagine.
posted by paisley henosis at 12:43 PM on February 12

Mr. Ferris, tear. Down. This. Wheel.

Wait, on second thought, don't. Weeeeee!
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 12:44 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

I don't understand, how will this help them invade Poland?

That's right! THEY"RE ALL NAZIS!!111!!
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 12:45 PM on February 12

1941
posted by horsemuth at 12:47 PM on February 12

BTW that thing looks awesome. The Berlin one, I mean. I am looking forward to riding a Berliner ferris wheel in a cool little pod-like white space capsule.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 12:47 PM on February 12

Call me when Quito, Ecuador kills two birds with one stone by building one big enough to let you place objects in geosynchronous orbit at the top.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:47 PM on February 12

oh shit. the objectum-sexuals will be creaming themselves over this.
posted by barrett caulk at 12:47 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

I like crapmatic's idea. Also, why don't they just go ahead and make them gigantic enough so that they can be space elevators too? First country to do that would be hot shit. They could cover the cars with Shamwow so that they could double as space junk collectors. That's three birds, one stone, folks.
posted by orme at 12:52 PM on February 12

This is no great international battle, they're all being developed by one company (The Great Wheel Corporation, whose website is having issues at the moment, but google has a cached version). And where is the United States in this "international battle"? Stuck at 400 feet, with views spanning 25 miles of Orlando, Florida. You'll see all this, and that's about it.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:53 PM on February 12

For the tl;drers, the same company built all three: the Great Wheel Corporation, based out of Singapore.

They have proposed a wheel to be built in Orlando next year, but it's only 122 feet. I expect some pundit or politician to make this into a nationalistic political issue.
posted by defenestration at 12:55 PM on February 12

If they position them right, we could land upside down on Jupiter and do wheelies.
posted by rory at 12:55 PM on February 12

122 meters, my bad! And I should've previewed.
posted by defenestration at 12:56 PM on February 12

If it doesn't expose you to open air, stopping and starting with a lurch as people board, making you nearly crap your pants, scared to fall to your doom into the rickety gears, knowing it was assembled by a carnie with nary a high school education, it's not a Ferris Wheel.

I'd like to get down now.
posted by explosion at 12:56 PM on February 12 [8 favorites]

Normal-sized Ferris wheels terrify me. Not just the ones put together by fly-by-night meth-heads, but even permament installations in theme parks. Thrill rides are great by me, and I'll skydive without a second thought, but get in a Ferris wheel? Not a chance.

The big ones, though, don't register the same way in my brain. I was a little freaked out by the London Eye, but no more than being in a glass elevator.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:57 PM on February 12

I am intrigued by your business plan. How can I invest my entire life savings in some ferris wheel derivatives?
posted by krinklyfig at 1:05 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

With this giant wheel of theirs, China is taking a Great Spin Forwards.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:15 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Yorkshire Eye was awesome! I hope they bring it back soon...
posted by Grrlscout at 1:15 PM on February 12

It is expected that, on a clear sunny day, passengers [of the bejing wheel] will be able to see the Great Wall of China in the mountains to Beijing's north.[2]

Good luck with that...
posted by delmoi at 1:21 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]

Someday, long after humans have killed themselves off and turned to dust, aliens will come and find our giant ferris wheels and think that we were a monstrously huge race that drove enormous cars.
posted by jamstigator at 1:23 PM on February 12

Welcome to the Humongous Ferris Wheel Bubble of 2009.

Which is humongous, the wheels or the bubble? You decide.
posted by Mister_A at 1:24 PM on February 12

It's worth noting that the world's first Ferris wheel, built for the Columbia Exposition in Chicago, was no slouch--264 feet tall, with 36 cars, each of which accommodated 60 people. The axle alone weighed 70 tons and was the largest forged work in the world at the time.

It was built to one-up the marvel displayed at the Paris World's Fair the previous decade: the Eiffel Tower.
posted by adamrice at 1:26 PM on February 12

Crapmatic: the wheels never stop turning (except at night obviously). People queue at the loading platform (like a railway platform) and then daintily step on to the slowly moving gondola as it comes past at ground level. The wheel only halts for a few seconds for wheelchair access when necessary. Part of the attraction of these things is the slow 20 minute journey, which is just enough time to make it feel like an event and not too long to be boring. They're fun!
posted by Duug at 1:26 PM on February 12

After seeing The Fury, there was no way in hell you were going to get me on one of those things.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:26 PM on February 12

> MetaFilter snarks, naturally, but giant Ferris wheels are just about the most interesting
> national pissing contest I can imagine.
> posted by paisley henosis at 3:43 PM on February 12 [+] [!]

Seconded. I can sure think of worse ones.
posted by jfuller at 1:38 PM on February 12

Could lead to dancing.
posted by jonmc at 1:45 PM on February 12

Remember when you were a kid, and you went on the Ferris wheel at the county fair, and you tried to get the car you were in to spin all the way upside down by rocking it really hard?

If anyone tries that shit at 600 feet up, and I am in the car with them, I'll toss them overboard.

Even if it means defeating several cleverly designed security systems, they are going out.
posted by quin at 2:03 PM on February 12

...assembled by a carnie with nary a high school education

Don't forget the hollow eyes that hint at a drug problem beyond your wildest imaginings!

Not just the ones put together by fly-by-night meth-heads

Meth if you're lucky.
posted by vibrotronica at 2:03 PM on February 12

And there's this piece if crap from my fair city

I believe it bucked in the heatwave we'ev had recently, so now they have something tangible to blame the poor visitor numbers on.

Better to say- "People can't ride the wheel cause it's buckled"

Rather than - "People won't ride the wheel cause it's shit"
posted by mattoxic at 2:09 PM on February 12

We are in the midst of a Ferris wheel craze. In 2009.

Speak for yourself.
posted by pianomover at 2:25 PM on February 12

How long does it take to go all the way around? Isn't a two-minute ride on a ferris wheel boring enough?

Also: Yonic symbol much?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:36 PM on February 12

what exactly is a fly-by-night meth head? someone who spontaneously takes up the drug without prior experience?
posted by mannequito at 3:02 PM on February 12

I'd like to take one of the small American wheels and attach it to the huge Chinese one and make God's own penny-farthing bicycle.
posted by JHarris at 3:15 PM on February 12

Rather than - "People won't ride the wheel cause it's shit"

See also the craptacular 200ft Wheel of Brisbane. It was supposed to be a two year thing, but I'm sure I heard they were talking about taking it down early due to lack of interest.

You can also now do a bridge climb on Brisbane's Story Bridge. Now the Sydney Harbour Bridge one makes some sort of sense, because, you know, it's Sydney Harbour, and it's the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But the top of the Story Bridge just gives you a view into the surrounding apartment blocks, which are taller, and of the scummy brown Brisbane river.
posted by markr at 3:22 PM on February 12

Ferris wheels freak me out, at least for the first 10 minutes or so. I'd much sooner jump on a fast roller coaster--anything, really--than a Ferris wheel. They just move...so...slow...and give you plenty of time to contemplate just how freaking high off the ground you are and what would happen if the thing just, oh, I dunno, toppled over on its side. I know, I know, it's irrational, but that's how my reptile brain rolls.
posted by zardoz at 3:24 PM on February 12

Yorkshire Eye was awesome!

They put one outside Bradford town hall over Christmas. It wasn't as big as the town hall so you could see the same top half of the building that you could from ground level. This was almost as successful as the one outside the Civic Hall in Leeds. From the top of that you could watch people who'd paid top dollar for the "city living experience" scratching their nads in shoebox sized apartments.
posted by vbfg at 3:26 PM on February 12

I really love the London Eye. I've been on it a few times now, but mostly I love what it does to the skyline.

Right now it is lit up in red. This is probably a Valentine's thing, but I can't help thinking of it as the London Eye Of Sauron.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:31 PM on February 12

These are a far cry from the first Ferris Wheel. The Devil in The White City has a great account of the planning and building of that wheel, if you haven't read it. It was the key feature at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and, the American answer to the Eiffel Tower.
posted by IvoShandor at 4:22 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

My hometown 1924
posted by hortense at 5:07 PM on February 12

Save Ferris.
posted by crossoverman at 5:35 PM on February 12

Man, I'd love to put one of those big wheels on top of Whistler ski mountain. Or even my local mountain. It'd be pure win.

Especially if it broke loose of its moorings. Whatta ride!
posted by five fresh fish at 7:46 PM on February 12

Fukuoka, Japan, has Sky Dream, one of the world's biggest Ferris wheels, conveniently located right next to... a much smaller Ferris wheel. It makes a beautiful panorama, but honestly, who's going to ride the small one?
posted by bakerybob at 8:10 PM on February 12

Would you feel anything if one of those dots stopped moving?

Chicago's Navy Pier wheel, not record-setting but competitive when built in 1995, is relatively diminutive now. The Exposition Authority has proposed roughly doubling its size to about that of the 1893 wheel, using a spokeless design similar to one in Tokyo, which may be done if Chicago gets the Olympics.
posted by dhartung at 10:01 PM on February 12

"what exactly is a fly-by-night meth head? someone who spontaneously takes up the drug without prior experience?"

More like someone who is unreliable in fulfilling the role of a meth head and might decide to pack it in.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:23 PM on February 12

Nothing like a nice Ferris Wheel discussion to get your hate-on, using carnies as the convenient victim.
posted by Goofyy at 6:52 AM on February 13

Surely I can't be the first to suggest someone re-invents the wheel here?
posted by htotheizo at 9:25 AM on February 13