London Eye in London (Great Britain / England) - Millennium Wheel

Capital of the United Kingdom - London like no other city in the world celebrating the advent of the millennium of 2000. The New Year has been opened: Millennium Dome, Millennium Bridge and a monumental, big mill London Eye (London Eye). It is the largest, the heaviest and the darkest construction of this type in the world.

In 1993, a competition for a building was scheduled to become the biggest tourist attraction of London. The marriage of architects David Marks and Julia Barfield came up with the idea of ​​building an enlarged version of a large mill commonly known from amusement parks. Their project was so successful that British Airways Corporation undertook to finance the construction. Soon after that construction started.

Firstly, solid foundations, weighing almost 12,000 tonnes, were poured in front of the parliament buildings. The steel element for the construction site was supplied with barges floating on the Thames. The London eye emerged in a lying position, supporting itself on pontoons moored along the Thames. At the moment when almost the entire structure of the wheel was created, it was put in a vertical position. It is the largest and heaviest construction built in such a way. Then, additional brackets, wheel rotating motors and 32 capsules were installed. Each of them has 25 people in its glazed interior.

Capsules weigh 10 tons each and are almost 9 m long. Inside the capsule there is an oval seat, sound system and smoke detectors. There is constant air circulation. Capsules were made by the French company Sigma. All are mounted in such a way that their floor is in a parallel position to the ground.

London Eye resembles a bicycle wheel on the XXL scale. It has 424 m of circumference and weighs 600 t. In contrast to the bicycle wheel, the London Eye "spokes" consist of steel ropes and not rods.

The wheel ride lasts 30 minutes, which means that the whole moves at a speed of about 26 cm per second. The wheel is powered by electric motors of about 200 hp. After 15 minutes. from the start of the ride, the passenger is at the top, which is 135 m. From there, in good weather, there is a view within a radius of 25 miles.