As part of an effort to lure visitors off the ferry and into New York City's least populous and most remote borough, Staten Island will host what officials say is the world's tallest Ferris wheel.
The 625-foot-tall, $230 million New York Wheel is to grace a spot in Staten Island overlooking the Statue of Liberty and the downtown Manhattan skyline, offering a singular view as it sweeps higher than other big wheels like the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye, and a "High Roller" planned for Las Vegas.
The wheel is due to start construction in 2014, and is to be called, The New York Wheel.
Designed to carry 1,440 passengers at a time, it's expected to draw 4.5 million people a year to a setting that also would include a 100-shop outlet mall and a 200-room hotel.
It will be "an attraction unlike any other in New York City - in fact, it will be, we think, unlike any other on the planet," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as he unveiled the plans against the backdrop of New York Harbor.
While the privately financed project faces various reviews, officials hope to have the wheel turning by the end of 2015.
The wheel would put Staten Island on the map of superlatives in a place where "biggest" is almost an expectation - home to the nation's biggest city population, busiest mass-transit system, even the biggest Applebee's restaurant.
The Island is also famous for a minor league ballpark and the zoo that hosts Staten Island Chuck, New York's answer to the famous prognosticating groundhog of Punxsutawney, Pa.
The attraction stands to change the profile of the least populous and most remote of the city's five boroughs, a sometime municipal underdog that has taken insults from New Jersey and was once known for having the world's largest landfill.
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