Paris Gigantic Wheel and Varieties Company 1898

The Grande Roue de Paris was a tall

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

built in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle world exhibition at

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Financing the "Grande Roue de Paris" happened by the creation of the "Paris Gigantic Wheel and Varieties Company" and selling the shares of this company. It was the tallest wheel in the world at the time of its opening. Théodore Vienne, the industrialist and founder of the

Paris–Roubaix Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium. It is one of cycling's oldest races, and is one of the ' Monuments' or classics of th ...

cycle race, was both owner and director of the Grande Roue de Paris. It was disassembled between 1920 and 1922 and rag-and-bone merchants used the pods as huts to carry on their trade. This evolved, through second-hand shops, into the antique trade that is now to be found on the site and known as the Swiss Village. The passenger cars were removed from the wheel and used as homes for French families when the region was devastated by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

.New York Times Picture Section 5, Sunday, April 3, 1921 Almost 90 years passed between its construction and a taller wheel, the Cosmo Clock 21, being built in Japan.

References

External links

La Grande Roue de 1900 à Paris
* French wiki article re: Swiss Village
English website from the Swiss Village in Paris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grande Roue De Paris Former Ferris wheels Amusement rides introduced in 1900 Amusement rides that closed in 1920 World's fair architecture in Paris Exposition Universelle (1900) 1920 disestablishments in France Removed amusement attractions