London Eye

Visitors in a capsule on the London Eye look over the Houses of Parliament, London, England. The capsules take 30 minutes to rotate around the wheel, providing visitors with stunning views over the city. Opened in 1999, the London Eye has become one of London's main tourist attractions.

The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, is one of the largest observational wheels in the world. With unparalleled views of London, the Eye has proved a major tourist attraction, but it was a controversial addition to the city's skyline.

A 151 m/495 ft diameter vertical wheel with glass enclosed pods, located beside the River Thames in London, England, near Waterloo Station and County Hall, opposite the Houses of Parliament. The construction of a wheel to symbolize the turning of the century and create a monument in which people could participate was the idea of architects David Marks and Julia Barfield, and is said to have been inspired by other celebratory structures such as the Ferris Wheel built for Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (1893) and the Eiffel Tower built for the Paris Exposition (1889). The construction was sponsored by the airline company British Airways, but due to technical problems the Eye could not be opened on 31 December 1999 as scheduled, and was opened to advance ticket holders on 1 February 2000 and to the public on 1 March.