In 1893 engineer George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. created an attraction for the world's fair in Chicago: A giant, steam-powered wheel that gently lifted passengers 250 feet in the air for a ...

GWR required the Ferris wheel to have at least 24 cars, each weighing at least 1,543 pounds. The total structure had to have a total weight of at least 99,208 pounds.