San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a number of attractions arriving in 2020, including an illuminated 150-foot observation wheel. Being moved from Cincinnati, Ohio, the wheel will provide riders with sweeping views from the ocean to downtown San Francisco.
The observation wheel will launch on April 4, 2020, and operate until March 1, 2021. It will be located at Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse, the outdoor plaza near the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences and the Japanese Tea Garden. The wheel was commissioned by SkyStar and built by Mondial Rides. It features 36 fully enclosed, climate-controlled gondolas, seating six passengers each for a 12-minute ride.
This will be the first time an observation wheel of this scale has operated in San Francisco since Golden Gate Park hosted the Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, where the Firth Wheel was a major attraction, standing at 120 feet and carrying ten people per carriage.
“Golden Gate Park is a San Francisco treasure and a place where everybody can enjoy the best that the city has to offer,” said San Francisco Mayor Breed. “We want to celebrate the Park and give people a new way to appreciate the beauty of our city during this 150th anniversary celebration. This observation wheel is just the first of many exciting announcements we will be sharing in the coming months as we get ready for the coming year-long celebration.”