Interesting Facts you Did Not Know about the London Eye
London Eye is, of course, one of the top attractions of London private tours. In fact, it is safe to say that no private tours London UK is complete without visiting the giant Ferris wheel situated along the banks of the River Thames. Below are a few fun facts about the giant wheel in London.
Interesting Facts about the London Eye
London natives call this wheel by many names like the London Eye, the Millennium Wheel, the Merlin Entertainments London Eye, the British Airways London Eye, and the EDF Energy London Eye. By the mid of January 2015, it even got a new name, the Coca-Cola London Eye.
Architects Frank Anatole, Nic Bailey, Mark Sparrowhawk, Steve Chilton, Malcolm Cook, Julia Barfield, and David Marks where the people behind the design of the famous London Eye. The design of this wheel looks similar to a giant bicycle wheel, but it is almost 200 times bigger than an average bike wheel.
The London Eye is 135 meters tall with a diameter of 120 meters. While you are on London private tours, you could also hear it being called the 4th tallest Ferris wheel in the world, while it is the tallest in Europe. It took a year and a half to complete the construction of this giant wheel. Over 1870 tons of steel and 3300 tons of concrete were used for its construction.
It has 32 ovoid capsules, and an interesting fact about it is that the capsules numbering do not have a number 13. These capsules weigh about 11 tons and each has the capacity to carry 25 people at a time. Each of these glass capsules contains seats for passengers, with the capacity to carry a total of 800 passengers during one revolution.
The rotation velocity of this wheel is 10 inches per second,which means that it will take almost 30 minutes to complete a full cycle. The rotation speed of the wheel is so slow that the passengers can even walk on and off the capsule when it is on the ground level.
When inside the capsule, you get a 360-degree view of the London city. The London eye was open to the public by the March of 2000 and has been considered as one of the world’s most beautiful landmarks since then. Over 3.75 million people visit this paid tourist attraction annually.
In 2012, the Olympic torch held by Amelia Hempleman-Adams, who is the youngest individual to have skied to the South Pole, took a round in the London Eye.