Merry-Go-Up-And-Down

Tonight I went for a ride on the Big Sky Wheel at Birrarung Marr. I thought that it was just the lights that made the wheel look like it was spinning quickly... I was wrong.



While Nick, Gene & I were walking towards Southbank for dinner after seeing Keating we spotted the ferris wheel which has been there for awhile and wondered why they're called ferris wheels. We guessed that it might have to do with the construction of the early wheels possibly being iron beams (turns out it was steel which makes sense). Wikipedia tells me that it's actually named after George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., who designed an 80 meter (264 feet) wheel for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893.

Naturally when we couldn't come up with a reason for its name we had to come up with a new one. Henceforth we now refer to them as merry-go-up-and-downs. A bit of a mouthful but we likes it :)