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ALONG THE PLAISANCE |
| The chief wonder of the Fair of 1893 was the work of George Washington Gale Ferris, a man born west of Chicago. Here the sight-seer was elevated two hundred and fifty feet above the ground. The axle of the Ferris wheel was forty-five feet long, thirty-two inches in diameter, and seventy tons in weight. The steel towers upon which the axle rested are one hundred forty feet high and were put into the earth thirty-five feet. Costing $380,000, it had earned its entire cost on September 1, 1893 when it forwarded $25,000 to the Exposition as royalty on the first profits. |
