The London Eye

Bourcet Loric                                                                         T°MEI

The London Eye

The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, is a Ferris wheel set up in London for the year 2000 festivities, at the same time as the Dome of the millennium of Greenwich. It is one of the tourist attractions in Europe to have been distinguished by a Thea Award, awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association.

The edge of the eye is supported by "spokes" and resembles a huge bicycle wheel. Lighting for the London Eye was redone with LED lighting in December 2006 to allow digital control of lights rather than manual replacement of fluorescent tubes.

The wheel carries 32 watertight and air-conditioned passenger cabins, attached to its outer circumference, each cabin represents one of the districts of London5. However, the cabins are numbered from 1 to 33, omitting 13 for reasons of superstition. The capsules are 10 tonnes each and each cabin can hold 25 people, although seats are present, passengers are free to walk inside the capsule. The wheel rotates at 26 cm per second (about 0.9 km / h or 0.6 mph) so that a rotation lasts about 24 minutes and 30 seconds.

It was first called British Airways London Eye, then Merlin Entertainments London Eye, then EDF Energy London Eye from January 20, 2011, following a three-year partnership with EDF Energy as a sponsor1. Since mid-January 2015, she has become The Coca-Cola London Eye. 

The wheel was built in sections that floated to the Thames on barges and assembled flat on platforms stacked on the river. Once the wheel was complete, it was erected in a vertical position by a strand jack system, at 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees. He was left in this position for a week as engineers prepared for the second phase of the climb. The wheel contains approximately 1,870 tonnes of steel.

The wheel was designed by architects Frank Anatole, Nic Bailey, Steven Chilton, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, Julia Barfield and David Marks.

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