London Eye

London eye

The London Eye is a giant observation wheel located on the South Bank. It was built as part of London's millennium celebrations. A breathtaking feat of design and engineering, passengers in the London Eye's capsules can see up to 40 kilometres in all directions.

The wheel design was used as a metaphor for the end of the 20th century, and time turning into the new millennium. Back in 2000, the London Eye was known as the Millennium Wheel.

The London eye is the huge wheel next to the River Thames near Big Ben. The 443 ft.-high wheel cost 35 million pounds to build, provides a 30-minute ride and is said to give 25-mile views in good weather. There are 32 capsules and each one takes up to 25 people-a maximum total of 800 passengers at any one time. The wheel can take 15,000 passengers a day.

The basic facts are these. The wheel turns anti-clockwise at the rate of less than two miles an hour. This is slow enough to enable you to enter the moving capsule comfortably. Thus it takes 15 minutes to carry you to the top. From take-off to landing occupies 30 minutes. The ride costs 7.45 pounds.

Every London landmark comes into view. St Paul’s, Westminster Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament, the old Battersea power station and the Post Office Tower seem dwarfed. Where have I seen this before, I wondered? It is a view sometimes granted to passengers hoping to land at Heathrow Airport.

Most impressive of all is the length of the Thames that comes into sight. There is a glint of it around the London docks. The boats there look like toys in the bath.

For those of mechanical turn of mind, the turning of the wheel offers fascination on its own. What appear to be gigantic lorries lying upside down connect with the wheel and make it turn round.

-Adapted from Daily Telegraph