Description
The Ferris Wheel is a tribute to American ingenuity and FUN.
At Coney Island, boardwalks, amusement parks, carnivals, county fairs and parish festivals around the globe, millions of Ferris wheels whirl through the sky for the sensation Joni Mitchell sang: “Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel.”
Give this card to a friend, family, a historian or engineer, to celebrate a relationship, the start of a new adventure, marriage, new job, new home, travel, for a birthday, a second marriage, a divorce, a new business, a fresh start, a revolution.
Some of our red, white and blue American Ferris Wheel have blue covers and some have red, because that’s fun, too.
History:
The Ferris wheel was America’s answer to the Eiffel Tower.
In 1890 George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., a 33-year-old bridge builder and engineer from Pittsburgh whose company was inspecting the steel used by the Chicago World’s Fair, had a brainstorm for an amusement ride that could carry almost 1500 people at a time. He quickly sketched a huge revolving steel bicycle wheel. He spent $25,000 of his own money on safety studies, hired more engineers, and recruited investors.
More than 100,000 parts went into Ferris’ wheel, notably an 89,320-pound axle that had to be hoisted onto two towers 140 feet in the air. Launched on June 21, 1893, it was a glorious success. Over the next 19 weeks, more than 1.4 million people paid 50 cents for a 20-minute ride and access to an aerial panorama few had ever beheld. “It is an indescribable sensation,” wrote a reporter named Robert Graves, “that of revolving through such a vast orbit in a bird cage.”
Message:
Happy Birthday. Another trip around the sun!
Big Wheel keeps on turnin’.
Enjoy life’s up and downs.
Enjoy the view from the top.
Do more of what makes you happy.
Love your life.
Fasten your seat belt, we’re going on a ride!
And so the adventure begins.
My soul is in the sky. ~William Shakespeare
Don’t worry, be happy. ~Bobby McFerrin
Round and Round and Round we go,
where the fun stops nobody knows!
