Move over ferris wheel and Polar Express. The Mega Drop is now in town and its taking all the attention.
When it comes to carnival rides, the ferris wheel has the distinction of being the first. Named after its inventor George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., Chicago’s World Fair in 1893 was where the ferris wheel made its first appearance. The ride was inspired by the demand for a monument to be showcased at the fair that would rival the Eiffel Tower, unveiled at Paris’ International Exposition in 1889. Ferris submitted a proposal for a design that was essentially a gigantic wheel with seats that would allow people to have a majestic view of the fair grounds.
Organizers were initially against the idea, thinking it rather absurd. So Ferris took it upon himself to find private funding for the project, and raised close to the $400,000 US needed for its construction. With Ferris fronting his own money the fair, organizers decided to give the gigantic wheel a chance.
The ferris wheel weighed in at over 100,000 pounds, was over 80 metres tall and became immensely popular. It had the capacity to carry 2,160 passengers at a time and averaged close to 35,000 passengers daily. With each passenger paying 50 cents to ride the ferris wheel for 20 minutes, it proved to be a very lucrative attraction for the fair. So profitable, that Ferris resorted to suing the fair’s management for a share of the over $750,000 US profit made by his invention. Today, that figure translates to just over $18 million US.
Many subsequent ferris wheels were built for amusement parks around the world after the Chicago World Fair. For over 100 years, countries battled to build the world’s largest ferris wheel, with the record being broken numerous times by places like London, France and Japan.
Today, Singapore boasts the world’s largest ferris wheel. Known as the Singapore Flyer, it was built in 2008 and is 165 metres tall. A ride for you and your friends in one of the private capsules will cost about $1,100 for approximately 30 minutes. Each air conditioned car can hold 28 passengers. It cost $180 million US to build and offers an unparalleled view of surrounding islands as well as shopping and dining at the base.
Since the successful inception of the ferris wheel, many other innovative carnival rides have surfaced. From the roller coaster to the tilt-a-whirl, from the Starship 4000 to the Polar Express and the Mega Drop, each new ride has progressively become more gravity defying and more extreme. It has come to a point where simply watching people on rides such as the Drop of Doom is as close as many people ever want to get to these thriller rides.
Judging from the lineups, the Mega Drop is one of the most popular rides at the Red River Ex. Also known as a “drop tower,” fair-goers are seated and strapped into comfortable seats that form a circle around a pole reaching over 100 metres into the air. Passengers are then slowly elevated to the top of the tower that offers a spectacular view of the entire fair grounds. After sitting for about a minute at the top of the ride — feeling more like 10 minutes as you reconsider your sanity — riders are dropped back to the ground at speeds of over 100 mph.
In a fast paced society where our senses are constantly being overwhelmed by stimuli, it is no wonder that our penchant for extreme rides is constantly being fed. While the ferris wheel was once considered extreme, it is now a ride for the faint of heart. Rides like the Slingshot, which launches passengers 100 metres into the air at speeds of over 150 mph in a circular capsule, are now crowd favorites.
With rides evolving at such an intense pace, it’s almost scary to even consider what future carnivals will offer. Will the Mega Drop and Slingshot be the equivalent of the ferris wheel in a few years?
