New York challenging Las Vegas in race for tallest Ferris wheel

associated press

In this image released by the New York Mayor’s Office, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012, is an artist’s rendering of a proposed 625-foot Ferris wheel, billed as the world’s largest, planned as part of a retail and hotel complex along the Staten Island waterfront in New York. The attraction, called the New York Wheel, will cost $230 million. Officials say the observation wheel will be higher than the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye and a “High Roller” wheel planned in Las Vegas. Beyond the wheel is the Manhattan skyline.

Everybody knows that big wheels roll in New York City. And New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is out to prove it.

The mayor was scheduled today to announce construction of a 650-foot Ferris wheel — and they’re calling it that, not an observation wheel — on Staten Island’s north waterfront, just north of the Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George.

Bloomberg vows it will be the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, higher than the current record-holder, the Singapore Flyer, the high-profile London Eye and two wheels under construction on the Las Vegas Strip.

The High Roller, a Las Vegas wheel being built in conjunction with Caesars Entertainment’s Project Linq, will be 550 feet tall when completed. The SkyVue, near Mandalay Bay, will be 500 feet high.

The High Roller developers are sensitive to the public calling their project a Ferris wheel and, instead, refer to it as an “observation wheel.”

Bloomberg said the Staten Island wheel could carry 30,000 riders a day during peak season and that the attraction would draw 4.5 million tourists a year. The wheel would have 36 capsules capable of carrying 40 people each.

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