How much did it cost to ride it?
You could ride the first Ferris Wheel for only 50 cents. A ride on our Ferris Wheel in British Columbia can cost as little as $2.00 Canadian. In 1893, fifty cents was the equivalent of $10.52 today. A day’s pay in 1893 was about $1 per day, or $5 per week. To take your family of 5 for a ride on the first Ferris Wheel, it would have cost you half of your weekly salary! The equivalent of that today would be $250.00 to ride on a Ferris Wheel in BC.
To ride a Wheel of equivalent or comparable size…the largest wheel today The Star of Nanchang, stands 541 Feet high, twice the height of the original Ferris Wheel. Though this Wheel is not a “Ferris” Wheel, it would certainly rival the first one ever made.