UPDATE 6/21/2018: Navy Pier has cancelled this event: https://navypier.org/event/125th-anniversary-ferris-wheel/
The great Ferris Wheel opened to the public on Thursday June 21, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Marking this anniversary will be celebrations of the Ferris Wheel at two of America’s most famous piers. Chicago’s Navy Pier and Santa Monica Pier will each commemorate George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.’s famous feat of engineering, which reached 264 feet into the sky above the Midway Plaisance.
The festivities at Navy Pier will include free rides on their 196-foot-tall Centennial Wheel for the first 1,893 registered guests; RSVP here. Starting at 1:25 pm (CDT) will be a program featuring Jim Ferris, relative of George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., and a dance performance by Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, recreating performances from the 1893 World’s Fair.
Meanwhile in California, Santa Monica Pier will offer free rides on their 85-foot-tall and solar-powered Pacific Wheel for the first 1,893 registered guests; RSVP at https://pacpark.com/125. A program starting at 11 am (PDT) will feature presentations by a Santa Monica Pier Historian and (possibly) a Ferris family member, and a salute to various popular products that debuted during the 1893 World’s Fair, including the Penny Press.
See the fair in panorama reel
Tho’ ‘twere but a toy for this great wheel
Now descending earthward again we are wending,
Up the Midway we will steal!
–Giuseppe Valisi, “The Ferris Wheel Souvenir Waltz-Polka”
