Designated May 23, 1989
The Wonder Wheel, which incorporates twenty-four passenger cars of which sixteen slide along serpentine tracks, was invented by Charles Herman of New York as an improvement upon G.W.G. Ferris’s giant wheel erected for the famous Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Manufactured by the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Amusement Company for Herman J. Garms, Sr., the Wonder Wheel opened on Memorial Day, 1920, at Coney Island, which had reached its zenith as America’s amusement park capital.
STATUS Designated Individual Landmarks
The Neighborhood
Coney Island
Coney Island faces Lower New York Bay and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and was formerly part of Gravesend, one of Brooklyn’s original six towns. Originally an island it was connected to Brooklyn (Long Island) by landfill in the early 20th century.
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