FROM THE WHEEL

The current version of Union Station has a number of attractions, including an aquarium, a ropes course, a mirror maze, mini golf and a big Ferris wheel. (More are under construction.) Ellie loves to go up the wheel. At the top, there is a view over the reconstructed train shed and the western part of downtown.                    

WINTER BAUBLE

It seems like every city of any size has a big Ferris wheel. We have had one at the Union Station complex for a few years. The lighting is all computer-controlled LEDs. It pulses and changes constantly. I think it looks best at night.            

HIGH ROLLER

When it's open during the warmer months, my granddaughter Ellie heads straight for the roof of the City Museum. There are tubes and tunnels, as seen yesterday, and a small, antique Ferris wheel. Not much diameter but the structure gives a boost in height over our downtown buildings.            

EVERYBODY HAS A WHEEL

It seems like just about every city has a Ferris wheel these days. We actually have two and you can see one from the other, but the second is an antique and much smaller, https://tinyurl.com/29vvsbpy. I've seen some very long lines here but it was remarkably uncrowded on the day I took Ellie to Union Station. Got some good shots from up high, which I'll come to.               

IDENTICAL COUSINS

Television viewers of a certain age (well, candidly, old Americans) may remember The Patty Duke show from the 60s. The premise was that the daughters of identical twin brothers were, well, identical cousins. https://youtu.be/qQTqKcojrVY  MICrowe Audrey and MOCrowe Ellie aren't quite identical, although Audrey's mother bought them matching dresses. They are almost exactly two years apart in age but Ellie is only a little taller and they are the best of friends. They favor the same hairstyle. Here they are patiently waiting to board the  Ferris wheel on the roof of the City Museum.                

 

THAT WHEEL, ETC.

One of our City Daily Photo colleagues commented yesterday that it seems mandatory for cities to have a Ferris wheel these days, and it's nice to have one here. It is built on the side of Union Station, now a hotel and entertainment complex. There is an aquarium, a mirror maze, mini golf and more. Expensive but fun. But two things to note about this scene:

Something in this image is totally fake and it would take a Photoshop nerd to spot it. The newest version of the program has a tool called Replace Sky. It precisely finds the edges of everything in front of the sky and drops in a new background of your choice. These clouds weren't there. The actual sky was empty (see yesterday's post).

The tall building just right of center is vacant and has no immediate prospect of reuse. After the breakup of the old AT&T into the regional "Baby Bells," STL was the home of Southwestern Bell. It bought up some of the other regional carriers and then acquired the rights to the AT&T name. This building was, for a time, AT&T's world headquarters. Then they decided that St. Louis was Podunk and moved the operation to Dallas. I read that it is hard to repurpose a large building built for a single tenant so it just sits there.                  

I SAW THE LIGHT

The whole family was supposed to go to the Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden Saturday night. I had several posts about it recently from my first visit. Unfortunately, there was cold rain all evening and we decided to try it another time. Ellie wanted to see something entertaining so we drove around looking for entertainment.

We heard that Kiener Plaza had a special display. Bogus. There were some white lights strung in the trees. We heard that there was a block in St. Louis Hills where every house had over-the-top displays. Nuh uh. Only one or two houses were done. We heard that the huge Anheuser-Busch brewery was festooned with illumination. Sorry. No one had flipped the switch yet.

Our last chance was Union Station. Some web page said there was special stuff under the old train shed, where there are various entertainments. There wasn't much beside the usual stuff, but the usual stuff is okay. There is always the Ferris wheel, open 365 days a year, and it had a a few customers. The lights are state of the art.              

CURVES AND LINES

No special reason for this, other than I've been posting things about The Wheel. I just like the picture.           

HOW MANY FERRIS WHEELS DOES YOUR CITY CENTER HAVE?

We got two. The one above is the new St. Louis Wheel at Union Station. It has 42 enclosed cars, heated and air conditioned, open 365 days a year. I like how the streetlamp and rising moon seem to spin an invisible cable through its hub.

So okay, the photo below was taken from a long way off, actually while riding the new wheel. The tall broadcast tower draws your attention but just to the left is the small, old fashioned wheel on the roof of the City Museum. I couldn't find a better shot in my archives although there's one around somewhere.          

THE GEOMETRY OF THIRST

This is in the current revision of St. Louis Union Station. You can get water or fizzy flavored sugar water here, but mostly it's about Anheuser-Busch products. Or, more recently, Anheuser-Busch-Inbev, the merged Belgian-Brazilian-American beer behemoth that took over one of our largest employers. Never a shortage of customers.

The photo was taken from the Saint Louis Wheel, the new Ferris wheel installed here. Much more about that soon.

             

NEW BIG WHEEL

We have a grand old railway station that, like so many in this country, fell into disuse and decay. There have been some attempts to resurrect it over the last couple of decades. The headhouse was converted into a grand hotel, which is apparently doing well. The large area under the train shed was filled by restaurants, a food court and quite a number of shops where I wouldn't spend money. All that failed. 

Now another developer is moving forward with a new plan. A big Ferris wheel, covered with colored LEDs at night, opened a few weeks ago. A fair sized aquarium will be ready by the end of the year. There is a lagoon that, on the half hour, has a music show punctuated by explosive fireballs. (I'll have a post about that some day.) There will be mini golf and I don't know what else. Hope this version makes it.

New York late this afternoon. If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.         

Let The Good Times Roll

Three views of the ferris wheel at Webster Groves' Fourth of July carnival. The new ones are covered with ever-changing LEDs, not the incandescent bulbs I remember as a child. Subtle lighting changes between the second and third images.

It occurred to me that I had no idea why they call them ferris wheels. Why, after George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., of course. (There was another one before him?)  The first one was in Chicago at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.