The Great Ferris Wheel

I've always found it just crazy that they (ie,  George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. and the folks who liked his idea) decided to build the first Ferris Wheel, they didn't stop to test small-scale versions of the idea or anything. No, they tried the idea of a giant spinning wheel by building it 264 feet tall with 36 40-seat cars. It blows my find that this actually had a happy ending. 

Photographs from the Ferris wheel's start and its happily ever after. 

Library of Congress

That original, at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Source

State Library and Archives Florida

Taos, New Mexico, ca. 1945. Source

State Library of Queensland

A Ferris wheel in Brisbane, Australia, ca. 1918. Source

University of Washington Libraries

Ferris wheel at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909. Source

Library of Congress

The Delta County Fair in Colorado, 1940. Source

New York Public Library

The Ferris Wheel at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Source

Library of Congress

The Vermont State Fair, 1941. Source

Herbert Gehr, LIFE © Time Inc.

A Ferris wheel made of toothpicks for F. A. O. Schwartz, 1940. Source

University of Washington Libraries

A ride that looks like a really dangerous version of a Ferris Wheel, called the "Giant Wheel," at the Century 21 Exhibition in Seattle, 1962. Source

New York Public Library

A near view of the original Ferris Wheel, Chicago, 1893. Source

Oregon State University

Night view of a Ferris wheel scene, ca. 1940-1950. Source