The Wonder Wheel is a
eccentric Ferris wheel at
Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park
Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is a family-owned amusement park located at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It features six adult rides and 16 kiddie rides, including a dozen family rides that parents and children can ride together. ...
at
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
in the
New York City borough
New York City is composed of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State, making New York City the largest U.S. municipality situated in mult ...
of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
The wheel is located on a plot bounded by West 12th Street to the west, Bowery Street to the north,
Luna Park
Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...
to the east, and the
Riegelmann Boardwalk
The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...
to the south. As with other eccentric Ferris wheels, some of the Wonder Wheel's passenger cabins are not fixed directly to the rim of the wheel, but instead slide along winding sets of rails between the hub and the rim.
Built in 1920 as one of several Ferris wheels on Coney Island, the Wonder Wheel was designed by Charles Hermann and operated by Herman J. Garms Sr. for six decades. Despite the subsequent economic decline of Coney Island, the Wonder Wheel continued to operate each summer through the 20th century. In 1983, Herman Garms's son Fred sold the ride to the Vourderis family, who restored the attraction and continue to run the wheel . The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the Wonder Wheel as an official New York City landmark in 1989, and minor modifications were subsequently made to the attraction.
History
At the time of the Wonder Wheel's construction, Coney Island was one of the largest amusement areas in the United States.
The first Ferris wheel in Coney Island was built for nearby
Steeplechase Park
Steeplechase Park was a amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Steeplechase Park was created by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou in 1897 and operated until 1964. It was the first of the three large amusement parks built on Cone ...
in 1894 and was erroneously billed as "the world's largest". Several variations of the Ferris wheel were erected in the neighborhood in the 1900s and 1910s. The Wonder Wheel was unusual in that only one-third of its 24 cars were stationary, while the other two-thirds rolled on tracks within the wheel itself.
Garms ownership
![South wall New York Aquarium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/South_wall_New_York_Aquarium.JPG)
The Wonder Wheel was designed by Charles Hermann as an improvement on
G.W.G. Ferris's giant wheel, and it was built for Herman J. Garms Sr. between 1918 and 1920 by the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company.
Coney Island landowner William J. Ward provided the land for the Wonder Wheel's construction. Garms, who had no formal financial experience, sold stock to family, other Coney Island business holders, and steelworkers. Meanwhile, Hermann sold all his shares in the wheel to raise money for construction and operation.
The wheel was opened on
Memorial Day
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
in 1920.
Hermann originally called it the "Dip-the-Dip", promising to combine in his new invention "the thrill of a scenic railway, the fun of a Ferris wheel, and the excitement of the Chute-the-Chutes". According to a ''
Science and Invention
''The Electrical Experimenter'' was an American technical science magazine that was published monthly. It was established in May 1913, as the successor to ''Modern Electrics'', a combination of a magazine and mail-order catalog that had been pub ...
'' article, the Wonder Wheel provided a "real thrill like you have probably never had before—at least not at this great height."
The wheel was later known as the "Eccentric Ferris Wheel" before being renamed the Wonder Wheel by 1940.
To help with the Wonder Wheel's upkeep, the Garms family lived under the Wonder Wheel during the summers.
[
By the 1960s, Herman Garms's son Alfred "Fred" Garms took over operation of the Wonder Wheel. Coney Island started to decline during the mid-20th century, and by 1964, it had seen its lowest number of visitors in 25 years. Despite subsequent failed attempts to redevelop the area as a casino area or theme park, the Wonder Wheel continued to operate.] Furthermore, it had not had any significant incidents in its history, making it a relatively well-off ride when other Coney Island attractions were closing. To prevent against crime, the wheel and surrounding attractions were protected by two German Shepherd
The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899.
It was originally bred as a herding dog, for he ...
s at night: one at the wheel's base and the other on an adjacent roof; during the day, the dogs rode around in one of the Wonder Wheel's cars, where the operator provided food and water for them. Off-duty security officers were also hired to avoid conflicts with the mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
.[
]
Vourderis ownership
Fred Garms was looking to sell the wheel by 1983, as he was getting older and unable to manage the wheel. At the time, Deno D. Vourderis had been interested in buying the wheel whenever Garms was willing to sell. At the time, Vourderis was in a hospital recovering from a stabbing attack, but Garms approached Deno's son Dennis on the possibility of purchasing the ride. On June 7, 1983, Vourderis bought the Wonder Wheel from Garms and his cousin Walter Kerner Sr., and it became "Deno's Wonder Wheel". According to ''The New York Times,'' the only maintenance instructions given to the Vourderis family were the words "Good Luck" scribbled on a cardboard cigarette box. The Vourderis family restored the Wonder Wheel and made it the central attraction of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park
Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is a family-owned amusement park located at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It features six adult rides and 16 kiddie rides, including a dozen family rides that parents and children can ride together. ...
. They spent $250,000 to restore the wheel, in addition to the $250,000 cost of buying it. Vourderis stated that part of the wheel's allure had come from when he had proposed to his future wife Lula atop the wheel 36 years prior to the purchase: he had promised to give the wheel to his wife as a future gift.
In 1989, the Wonder Wheel was made a New York City designated landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
. By the early 1990s, the Wonder Wheel had offered free advertising space to the McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
fast-food chain, which had two franchises near the wheel. Fearing that the distinctive McDonald's logo would overshadow the Wonder Wheel itself, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted against allowing a McDonald's logo on the wheel, despite allowing Vourderis to put "Deno's" above the "Wonder Wheel" sign on the wheel's hub. Upon Deno's death in the mid-1990s, control of the wheel and the amusement park passed to Dennis Vourderis. In the 2000s, Deno's grandchildren also became involved in the operation of the wheel. Despite the redevelopment of Coney Island and the erection of the nearby Luna Park
Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...
in 2010, the wheel and associated amusement park continued to operate. The Wonder Wheel received a new solar-powered lighting system in 2012, replacing a lighting system that had been broken for three decades. Even during the aftermath of 2012's Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
, when Deno's Amusement Park was flooded, the Wonder Wheel was only slightly damaged and reopened the next year.
, the Wonder Wheel is the oldest continuous operating ride at Coney Island, and Dennis Vourderis and his brother Steve continue to operate the Wonder Wheel and the amusement park.[ Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is the last family-operated amusement park in Coney Island, and even though several developers have made offers for the amusement park and wheel, the Vourderis family has refused to sell.] The Vourderis family had planned to celebrate the Wonder Wheel's centenary with a three-day celebration in May 2020, but this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
, which shuttered all businesses deemed non-essential. The 2020 season was the first in which the Wonder Wheel did not operate at all; the Wonder Wheel ultimately reopened in April 2021. The centennial celebration was pushed back to sometime after the 2021 reopening.
Description
Design
The Wonder Wheel is located at 3059 West 12th Street, just north of the Riegelmann Boardwalk
The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...
. Its entrance plaza is composed of a steel structure with plywood-and-corrugated metal
Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a bu ...
. The hub of the wheel, supported by two blue-painted legs shaped like the letter "A", contains an illuminated sign with orange letters spelling "" in all capital letters. There are sixteen spokes extending from the hub, each connected at their outer ends by a hexadecagon
In mathematics, a hexadecagon (sometimes called a hexakaidecagon or 16-gon) is a sixteen-sided polygon.
Regular hexadecagon
A '' regular hexadecagon'' is a hexadecagon in which all angles are equal and all sides are congruent. Its Schläfli symb ...
al frame and braced by green beams, each connected through rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched ...
s and gusset plate
Gusset plate is a plate for connecting beams and girders to columns. A gusset plate can be fastened to a permanent member either by bolts, rivets or welding or a combination of the three. They are used in bridges and buildings, as well as oth ...
s. The eight stationary cars on the hexadecagonal frame are painted white while the sixteen motion-capable cars are painted red-and-yellow or blue-and-yellow. At West 12th Street is a neon sign weighing , overhangs the sidewalk by , and is raised above the sidewalk; the sign contains letters spelling "" and arrows pointing to the actual wheel. Yet another Wonder Wheel sign with arrows is located on a southern approach to the wheel.
The wheel itself is tall, weighs and is powered by a motor. It has 24 fully enclosed passenger cars, each able to carry six people, giving a total capacity of 144 passengers. Sixteen of the cars slide inward on snaking tracks, falling outward as the wheel rotates. The remaining eight cars are fixed to the rim, giving a traditional Ferris wheel experience to passengers. Originally, the Wonder Wheel was located on two large blocks of concrete above a pool of water.
Rides
There is no height restriction for the Wonder Wheel. In 2015, a ''Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' article estimated that 200,000 people ride the Wonder Wheel every year. , over 35 million rides have been taken on the wheel since it first opened. There are separate queues for the stationary and moving cars.
A ride on the Wonder Wheel costs 10 credits; the cost of each credit varies depending on how many are purchased, but generally cost $1 if purchased individually. Each ride consists of two rotations around the Wonder Wheel.
Safety
The Wonder Wheel has had a strong safety record. The former owner-operator of the ride, Fred Garms, told the ''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' in 1981 that "I put my money into maintenance. ..My father used to say, 'The dollar you don't put in today will cost you $2 tomorrow.'" News outlets reported in 2000 that the Wonder Wheel had not experienced any significant incidents in its history, operating every summer season since its opening; this remained true even after Hurricane Sandy flooded the surrounding amusement park in 2012. The wheel was also designed with an emergency hand crank in case of power losses.
The ride's first owner-operator, Herman Garms, overhauled and painted the ride each year, to protect it from the harsh weather associated with New York winters. The tradition of winter maintenance continued with the Wonder Wheel's subsequent owners. The only time the wheel stopped while not under the control of the operator was during the New York City blackout on July 13, 1977. However, since Wonder Wheel has its own electricity, the owners cranked the wheel around to evacuate the passengers.
Critical reception
A writer for the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...
'' stated in 2000 that when "the cars begin to swing like a pendulum ..you swear the entire structure is collapsing." The same year, a writer for the ''Central New Jersey Home News
The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a Daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of ...
'' praised the views from the Wonder Wheel, saying that "a trip would not be complete without a spin on the Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...
, a trip to the top of Deno's Wonder Wheel or a corn dog at Nathan's." In 2015, a ''Newsday'' reporter contrasted the two experiences of the Wonder Wheel's stationary and moving cars: the stationary-car experience was described as being "so pleasant a baby can ride it without alarm", but the swinging-car experience was "more like a catch-your-breath thrill".
Cultural influence
''The New York Times'' called the Wonder Wheel "the jewel of the showy, boomtown Coney Island that rose along the newly widened beach in the Roaring Twenties".[ The Wonder Wheel has inspired at least two replicas. ]Pixar Pal-A-Round
Pixar Pal-A-Round (formerly known as the Sun Wheel and Mickey's Fun Wheel) is a eccentric wheel at Disney California Adventure, at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The attraction opened to the public on February 8, 2001 at Paradise ...
, a eccentric Ferris wheel at Disney California Adventure
Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...
, opened in 2001 and was initially known as Sun Wheel and Mickey's Fun Wheel. There was also a replica in Yokohama Dreamland
Yokohama Dreamland was an amusement park that operated in Totsuka, Yokohama, Japan from 1964 to 2002. The management company, Japan Dream Tourism, was acquired by the supermarket chain Daiei in 1993, and the amusement park closed permanently ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
Due to its prominence on Coney Island, the Wonder Wheel has been depicted in numerous movies and TV shows, such as the film '' The Warriors'',[ the film '' Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins'',] and the TV series ''Mr. Robot
''Mr. Robot'' is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociati ...
''. At least one film is named after the attraction: ''Wonder Wheel
The Wonder Wheel is a eccentric Ferris wheel at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park at Coney Island in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The wheel is located on a plot bounded by West 12th Street to the west, Bowery Street to the north, ...
'' (2017), set on Coney Island in the 1950s. In addition, the Wonder Wheel has been the setting for many engagements and weddings throughout its history. In August 2020, historian Charles Denson
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
published a book about the Wonder Wheel, titled ''Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel Park''.[
]
See also
* List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, classi ...
References
Notes
Citations
External links
*
Oral histories about the Wonder Wheel collected by the Coney Island History Project
{{Ferris wheel
Ferris wheels in the United States
New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn
Coney Island
1920 establishments in New York City