Pittsburgh Deserves A Full-Time Ferris Wheel

PITTSBURGH, PA - The sight is impressive. But when it’s arrived in recent years as part of the EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, it’s a reminder that the city unwisely has allowed a celebrated part of its history to be hijacked.

Like a beloved relative who arrives for a holiday but has to depart after just a few days, the Wheel of Lights stay in town always is frustratingly brief. Sitting in Point State Park, the 90-foot-tall attraction boasts 16 multi-passenger cars and is by far the regatta’s largest attraction.

That the Wheel of Lights annually is dismantled immediately following the event undoubtedly would disappoint the inventor of the Ferris wheel, a fellow name, unsurprisingly, George Ferris. When he designed the first Ferris wheel for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he did so from his house on the North Side’s Arch Street, about two miles from Point State Park.

When the Wheel of Lights quickly vanishes from there, you might see a small wheel locally at the occasional church carnival. But it’s likely the last you’ll see of Ferris’ famous creation, in the town where he created it, until next year.

Pittsburgh doesn’t have one. You can’t even find a Ferris wheel at Kennywood. The family amusement park in West Mifflin got ride of its wheel about 20 years ago.

Other cities embrace Ferris wheels and use them as marketing tools. The High Roller in Las Vegas has the nation’s tallest at 167.6 feet, but smaller ones in Orlando, Seattle, Myrtle Beach and the National Harbor just outside of Washington, D.C., also have proven successful.

How much sense does it make that many other areas benefit from the invention of a Pittsburgher, but not Pittsburgh? How much sense does it make that there’s not a money-making Ferris wheel standing in rotating tribute to Ferris?

Is the Andy Warhol Museum in Las Vegas? No way. Is the August Wilson Center in Orlando? Duh. Is the Carnegie Museum in Carnegie? Of course not. How much sense would that make?

A few years ago, I suggested in the newspaper I worked for at the time that a Ferris wheel might be a good addition for a large, unused and ugly lot facing Grandview Avenue on Mt. Washington. That lot still stands ugly and unused, but recently was put on the market by its owner after years of unfulfilled promises the site would be developed.

Would a new owner be bold enough to attempt to put a Ferris wheel there?

As noted above, other cities have them. But none offer the breathtaking view of one that would be positioned atop Mt. Washington, which provides spectacular sights even if you’re standing on the sidewalk. Pittsburgh quickly could transition from a city without a Ferris wheel to a city with one of the nation’s best.

A Ferris wheel could take Pittsburgh’s tourism business, ahem, to new heights.

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh field editor. Reach him at 412-334-4033 or Eric.Heyl@Patch.com.

Photo byJumilla via Creative Commons.