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Steel Structure Trivia: Wheel in the Sky

The 550-ft-tall, steel-framed High Roller in Las Vegas, which opened last year, is now the tallest observation wheel ever built (it’s also one of this year’s IDEAS2 Award winning projects; you can read more about it in our May issue). It’s one of several wheels that have sprung up worldwide since the original Ferris wheel, which was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In fact, Chicago’s Navy Pier just announced its plans to install a new, taller Ferris wheel in time for the pier’s 2016 centennial (read more). The pier’s new wheel will be taller than the current one but will not compete height-wise with the Vegas High Roller. (Photo: Arup)

Our June Steel Structure Trivia question is: How many world’s tallest-ever Ferris wheels have there been since the original 1893 Chicago Ferris Wheel?

Answer:

Since the original 1893 Chicago Ferris Wheel, there have been nine world’s tallest-ever Ferris wheels (see the list on Wikipedia). Congratulations to our winners! They are Mark Sencich, VDC manager - Western Division, Schuff Steel Company, San Diego (an AISC Member/Certified fabricator); and Nep Viajar, a civil/structural engineer with Fluor Corp. in Houston.

You can test your steel structure knowledge right here on our MSC website on the last Friday of each month, where a new trivia question will be posted to the News section. Our next question will be posted on Friday, July 31 at noon CDT.