LONDON EYE, LONDON

LOCATION : The London Eye is a giant Ferris Wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames  in  London. Also known as the Millennium Wheel, its official name was originally the British Airways London Eye, then the Merlin Entertainment London Eye, and since January 2011, the EDF energy London Eye.

 

 

DESCRIPTION: The London Eye was formally opened by then Prime Minister, Tony Blair on 31 December 1999, although it was not opened to the public until 9 March 2000 because of technical problems.On 5 June 2008 it was announced that 30 million people had ridden the London Eye since it opened

The entire structure is 135 metres (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394 ft). It is currently Europe's tallest Ferris wheel,the most popular paid tourist attraction in United Kingdom with over 3.5 million visitors annually,and has made many appearances in popular culture.

 The wheel's 32 sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules, designed and supplied by Poma, are attached to the external circumference of the wheel and rotated by electric motors. Each of the 10-tonne (11-short-ton) capsules represents one of the London Boroughs, and holds up to 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though seating is provided.

The wheel rotates at 26 cm (10 in) per second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph) so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes. It does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level^. It is, however, stopped to allow disabled or elderly passengers time to embark and disembark safely.