Navy Pier to get bigger Ferris wheel

Call it progress — 122 years after the Ferris Wheel was invented in Chicago, Navy Pier is getting a bigger Ferris Wheel.

But although the new wheel will be taller than the current wheel by 50 feet, at 200 foot tall it’s still smaller than the original that George Ferris wowed the world with at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, according to a news release from City Hall.

And when it opens in 2016, it will be dwarfed by not only the London Eye (450 foot), but also new wheels in Dubai (689 foot) and New York (630 foot).

That prompted a downright un-American, un-Chicagoan comment from the man in charge of Navy Pier to the Trib:

I wouldn’t say that bigger is always better, said Brian Murphy, chief operating officer of Navy Pier Inc., the private nonprofit that was created in 2011 to manage the pier and oversee its redevelopment. It’s more about the experience and elevating the experience with our guests with the year-round use of the wheel.

Still the daddy: the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition wheel that started it all | (Sun-Times file photo)

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