page_title: Ferris wheel
section_title: Centreless wheels
hierarchical_section_title: Ferris wheel / Variants / Centreless wheels
caption_attribution_description: LaQua in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
context_page_description: A Ferris wheel is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity. Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright. These wheels are sometimes referred to as observation wheels and their cars referred to as capsules. However, these alternative names are also used for wheels with conventional gravity-oriented cars.
  The original Ferris Wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The generic term Ferris wheel, now used in American English for all such structures, has become the most common type of amusement ride at state fairs in the United States.
  The current tallest Ferris wheel is the 167.6-metre High Roller in Las Vegas, Nevada, which opened to the public in March 2014.
context_section_description: In the centreless (sometimes called hubless or spokeless) wheel design, there is no central hub and the rim of the wheel stays fixed in place. Instead, each car travels around the circumference of the rim. The first centreless wheel built was the Big O at Tokyo Dome City in Japan. Its 60-metre (197 ft) height has since been surpassed by the 145-metre (475.7 ft) high Bailang River Bridge Ferris Wheel on the upper deck of the Bailang River Bridge in Shandong Province, China, which opened in 2017.
  The first centreless wheel in North America opened in January 2019 at the indoor Méga Parc in Quebec City, Canada. The 23.5 m (77 ft) wheel at Méga Parc was designed and manufactured by Larson International.
caption: Big O, a 60-metre (197 ft) tall centreless wheel at Tokyo Dome City in Japan
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