- Wiener Riesenrad
The Wiener Riesenrad (German for "Vienna giant wheel"), or Riesenrad is a
Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park inLeopoldstadt , the 2nd district ofAustria 's capitalVienna . It was one of the earliest Ferris wheels, erected in1897 to celebrate EmperorFranz Josef I 'sgolden Jubilee . The designer was an Englishman,Walter Bassett , which explains why the wheel'sdiameter is a round number inImperial units - 200 feet (approximately 61 m). The Riesenrad is now one of Vienna's most populartourist attraction s, and symbolises the district as well as the city for many people.The wheel originally had 30
gondola s, but was severely damaged in the Second World War, and when it was rebuilt, only 15 gondolas were replaced. The spokes are steel cables, in tension, and the wheel is driven by a circumferential cable which leaves the wheel and passes through the drive mechanism under the base.The Riesenrad famously appeared in the
post-war film noir "The Third Man ". It is also featured in the1987 James Bond film, "The Living Daylights ", and appears prominently inMax Ophuls ' "Letter from an Unknown Woman" and its Generation X counterpart,Richard Linklater 's "Before Sunrise ".Riesenrad is not the only Ferris wheel in Vienna, only the largest. A second permanent Ferris Wheel can be found at
Bohemian Prater .External links
* [http://www.wienerriesenrad.com/ Wiener Riesenrad]
* [http://www.photogalerie.at/serie-3.html Photogallery: Wiener Riesenrad]
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