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The Price of the Wheel: George Ferris Jr
Paperback
Entertainment & Performing ArtsBiographies General
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Publisher: Michael Webster
Published: Dec 11 2025
Pages: 170
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.39 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
The Engineer. The Spectacle. The Price of Triumph.
In 1893, the world was focused on Chicago's World's Fair. America needed a spectacle to eclipse the Eiffel Tower-but the ambitious plan to build the biggest rotating machine in history was dismissed as a death trap.
Enter George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., a quiet, 33-year-old civil engineer from Pittsburgh. Specializing in the minute study of steel, Ferris wagered his entire reputation-and fortune-on a single, impossible concept: the Great Wheel. At 264 feet tall, carrying thousands of passengers, it was a colossal challenge hurled directly at gravity.
This is the definitive story of the man who engineered a wonder and transformed amusement forever. From the moment he secured the largest steel forging of its time to the mechanical marvel's grand opening, Ferris became a national hero. But success came at a shattering cost.
Discover the brilliant, tragic life of the engineer who gave the world the Ferris Wheel, only to lose everything in its shadow. Approx.170 pages, 29800 word count
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