George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (February 14, 1859 - November 22, 1896) was an American engineer. He is most famous for having created the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
He was born in Galesburg, Illinois and his family sold their dairy farm and moved to Carson City, Nevada when Ferris was five years old. His family later relocated to California, and Ferris attended high school in Oakland, California. ...
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George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (February 14, 1859 - November 22, 1896) was an American engineer. He is most famous for having created the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
He was born in Galesburg, Illinois and his family sold their dairy farm and moved to Carson City, Nevada when Ferris was five years old. His family later relocated to California, and Ferris attended high school in Oakland, California. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a Charter Member of the local chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity, in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. After that, he began a career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders.
News of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, drew Ferris to the city. In 1891, the directors of...
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