Home    Vienna, Austria  9/7/2008  
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The Wiener Riesenrad (German for "Vienna giant wheel"), or Riesenrad is a Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna. It was one of the earliest Ferris wheels, erected in 1897 to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's golden Jubilee. The designer was an Englishman, Walter Bassett, which explains why the wheel's diameter is a round number in Imperial units - 200 feet (approximately 61 m). The Riesenrad is now one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and symbolises the district as well as the city for many people.

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