World’s Largest Ferris Wheel
Ferris Wheels have always been a symbol of engineering innovation and also represents exquisite fun and excitement since its invention. The first ever giant wheel was showcased by George Ferris in 1893 at Chicago World’s Fair as a rival to Eiffel Tower. It was the largest of its kind and was as high as 264 feet! With due respect and admiration to Mr. Ferris’ invention, such kinds of ride wheels were named as a Ferris wheel.
Since then, wheel versions became an important part of fairs and carnivals across the earth. A whole new era of giant Ferris Wheels began with the opening of London Eye- the highest Ferris wheel constructed having glass covered capsules offering beautiful aerial views to the passengers.
Soon after that, Singapore jumped in the league and introduced new heights to the revolving rider in 2008. It nabbed the title of World’s Tallest Wheel from London Eye and been enjoying the title since.
And whoa! World’s Sin City could not sit back in the wheel race. Las Vegas is going to have the world’s newest and largest Ferris wheel, named ‘High Roller’. Visited or not visited, Las Vegas is not just a one-time visit. It’s an addiction, a craving that pulls you towards it. So the ‘fun’-hearted people, like you and me, have yet another reason to visit Las Vegas now.
This eye-catching tourist attraction of Las Vegas can take more than 1,000 people at one time. Can you imagine what view it will provide from as high as 550 feet into the sky over the city’s famed Strip?! Oh I get goosebumps just in imagining this! The very top of the High Roller will soar 55 stories over the city. It’s going to be a major landmark for the Sin City!
At 550 feet high, High Roller has left behind the London Eye with 100 feet and wins with a close edge of 9 feet from Singapore Flyer. As in the city, it’s just a hair taller than the Bellagio Hotel. However Wynn Las Vegas still looks down on the rest.
The elephantine project is now visible from all over the city, including the airport as well. The main construction of the wheel is nearly finished. Outer ring has just recently been hoisted into the position on 03rd Sept 2013. Scheduled to start its spin early next year, it will be alighted with as many as 1500 LED lights.
This massive wheel is being built by Caesars Entertainment Corp. as a major piece of a huge new development called The Linq which is estimated to cost about $550 million. The Ferris wheel would also have a beautiful outdoor plaza and a mall. It will lure more young people aged between 21 to 46 years. Expected is that this new development will grow the market share of visitors spending in Las Vegas upto 52% by 2015.
The area of development is just across the street from Caesars Palace. Project Director, David Codiga takes pride in telling, “It’s going to be an icon.” He very correctly states that the Roller is going to be a part of every guest’s visit to Las Vegas irrespective of whether he rides it or not. It’s near to impossible to miss it on your visit to Las Vegas. The price of the tickets would be similar to that of London Eye that costs about $30.
Umm, it’s not exactly those small teetering baskets that we used to ride on in our childhood but its surely something that will amaze your eyes with the City’s top aerial view. We’ve grown up so and so have the Rider Wheels! Now those baskets are replaced with large fixed capsules with thick glass walls. These are not something that we remember from carnivals of our childhood but the new reformed rides are good enough to satiate the thrill needs of today’s childhood.
The roller will have 28 pods, each designed to carry a maximum of 40 passengers. All the capsules will come with audio-visual components to facilitate exotic aerial views of the city. Considering its huge size, Las Vegas Ride will take about 30 minutes for completing one rotation. Now that the wheel has taken its full shape and spokes have also been added to it, let’s just wait for 2014 to arrive as soon as it possibly can!
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