Beijing Great Wheel Beijing Great Wheel The Beijing Great Wheel, () a tall giant Ferris wheel, was to have been constructed in eastern Beijing's Chaoyang Park, one of the 2008 Summer Olympics venues. If it had been built, it would have become the world's tallest Ferris wheel, superseding the Singapore Flyer (world's tallest 2008-2014). The Great Wheel Corporation originally forecast the wheel would start turning on August 1, 2008, one week in advance of the Beijing-hosted 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2007, Chinese state media reported that construction had begun, with completion delayed until 2009 due to design issues. Completion was subsequently rescheduled for
Ferris wheel rival the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition. Ferris was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bridge-builder. He began his career in the railroad industry and then pursued an interest in bridge building. Ferris understood the growing need for structural steel and founded G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, a firm that tested and inspected metals for railroads and bridge builders. The wheel rotated on a 71-ton, 45.5-foot axle comprising what was at that time the world's largest hollow forging, manufactured in Pittsburgh by the Bethlehem Iron Company and weighing 89,320 pounds, together