Carl Sandburg's family didn't have any money to attend the World's Columbian Exposition on Chicago's lakefront in the summer of 1893. Pay reductions and fewer hours had cut his father's wages  at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad blacksmith's shop by almost half because of the Panic of 1893. Sandburg more than likely read about all the aspects of the fair in the Chicago newspapers.

Planning for the fair began in 1890. It was named in honor of the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering the western hemisphere continents in 1492. The fair didn't open until the spring of 1893.

Daniel H. Burnham, the chief architect of the fair, wanted an unusual attraction which would outshine the new Eiffel Tower in Paris. George W.G. Ferris, Jr. provided the attraction for him.

For some time Ferris had been toying with the idea of a wheel on which people could ride. With Burnham's challenge, he went into action rounding up financial supporters, testing safety features and materials and selecting fabricators and suppliers. Some engineers said the wheel would never revolve.

Ferris' wheel stood 264 feet in height and was located on the Midway Plaissance outside the actual exposition grounds near the University of Chicago campus. It was driven by a 1000-horsepower steam engine, including a back-up engine of the same size for any emergencies that might happen. The huge axle weighed 89,320 pounds. There were thirty-six cars attached to the wheel. Each one weighed 26,000 pounds and could carry sixty passengers. There was a conductor on each car to answer questions and calm fears of passengers.

Each rotation of the wheel took approximately ten minutes. A total of twenty-six million people road the wheel in both Chicago and St. Louis, to which it had been moved for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. It was finally destroyed with two hundred pounds of dynamite in 1906 in St. Louis.

George Washington Gale Ferris was born on Valentine's Day, 1859 in Galesburg. His grandfather was the Reverend George Washington Gale, founder of Galesburg. In 1864, the George W.G. Ferris, Senior family sold its dairy farm and moved to Carson City, Nevada. George Jr. attended the California Military Academy in Oakland in 1875. The following year he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He graduated in 1881 with a degree in civil engineering.

Ferris specialized in building railroad bridges and established his company in Pittsburgh. It tested metals used in their construction and also inspected bridges for safety. It was a vital service for the many railroads being built from coast to coast.

George Ferris died November 22, 1896, at the age of thirty-seven. The cause was typhoid fever. The place of the burial of his ashes is unknown. The ashes were held by the undertaker for some time until his brother paid for the cost of cremation.

Later Ferris wheels became an attraction at carnivals and fairs around the country. Today many cities across the globe have large wheels as a tourist attraction. This past summer, a 195 foot wheel opened at Navy Pier in Chicago. It is named the Continental Wheel and is sixty-eight feet shorter than the original. The twelve minute ride costs $15. For $35, one can ride the wheel all day. In terms of inflation, the ride costs almost the same as the fifty cent admission in 1893.