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George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (February 14, 1859 - November 22, 1896) was an engineer born in Galesburg, Illinois. He is most well known for inventing the Ferris wheel, constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition in an attempt to create something as impressive as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
His family moved to Carson City, Nevada when Ferris was five years old. The family house in Carson City is on the historic tour list. His family later relocated to California, and Ferris attended high school in Oakland. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a Charter Member of the Chi Phi Fraternity, in the class of 1881 with a degree in civil engineering. After that, he began a career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders.
