New sight along the Potomac: Giant observation wheel at National Harbor, May 2014

[mstone]

Making the infrastructure investments that matter

[TwoWheelsDC]

Less than 100 feet higher than the Wilson Bridge road deck/sidepath…and the view from the bridge is free.

For reference, the London Eye is almost 300ft taller.

[cyclingfool]

Adding to the eyesore that is National Harbor. Yay! :rolleyes:

That said, I’m guessing that the view from the top of that bad boy will be pretty sweet.

[Mikey]

@TwoWheelsDC 74965 wrote:

…and the view from the bridge is free. . .

And unobstructed

[jrenaut]

It could be worse.

[Mikey]

Anything to get more people to drive to Nat Harbor, right?

[PotomacCyclist]

I think I meant to type “sight” in the title. [The forum gods have acted!]

I’m mostly neutral on this. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, but it won’t change the skyline that much. National Harbor already has a prominent presence along the river, with lots of lights. The Wheel won’t change that either way, except to add something curvy.

I was wondering about the height, compared to the Wilson Bridge too. The ride across the bridge is cool, except for all of those expansion joints.

The water taxi between Old Town and NH is nice. I’ll probably try out the Wheel at some point. But I think I’ll wait a month or two, just in case they haven’t worked out all of the bugs. I don’t want to be a guinea pig for them.

I hope Peterson gets going with a possible Capital Bikeshare plan. There have been some brief mentions in articles, but no definite timetables yet. More adventurous members can ride between Old Town and NH, although I doubt many casual cyclists will do that. Others might ride from NH to the bridge and back. NH is large enough that just having a small group of stations scattered across the grounds would be useful.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I’m neutral too, really…I’d just say that it’s more of gimmick than a real attraction, given it’s small-ish size and distance from the city. Saying it has a “bird’s eye view” of the city is a bit of a stretch, when it’s 6 miles (as the crow flies) from downtown.

[Terpfan]

I’m sure the pilots of Marine One are going argh at this one. At almost 2.5x the height of the Wilson Bridge, aerial folks will have to pay close attention since a lot use the river, particularly helicopter traffic.

I thought it was atop the hill where the new casino is, but thankfully it’s down by the water so it won’t be as bad of an eyesore for mini-vegas. When do we get the roller coaster?

[jnva]

How can you not love this? It’s a giant bicycle wheel! Radial laced spokes, very ELITE.

[bobco85]

This, my fellow Bike Illuminati, will prove to all who drive across the Wilson Bridge that we are everywhere, installing bike lanes, sharrows, and bike trails, anywhere we please! (add evil laugh)

Now, can a bike be brought onto the new Bike Illuminati statue- er, I mean, Ferris wheel, or would that require an outdated “Bike Inception” joke?

[consularrider]

@jnva 74986 wrote:

How can you not love this? It’s a giant bicycle wheel! Radial laced spokes, very ELITE.

Nope, it’s Tim Kelley’s (or Dirt’s?) unicycle.

[PotomacCyclist]

For now. In the works: a giant wheel on the Old Town shore. A giant frame will be added at a later date, completing the enormous invading spaceship, I mean, super-sized bicycle.

[DaveK]

It’s like every new thing at National Harbor is in competition for being the worst. Outlets, casino, now this. The saving grace is that the cranky old NIMBYs on the Old Town waterfront will be apoplectic with rage.

[mattotoole]

@Mikey 74969 wrote:

Anything to get more people to drive to Nat Harbor, right?

I’m all for real ferry service to Old Town, the airport and the District. Think not of people getting to Nat’l Harbor, but getting thousands of conference attendees into the city and Old Town.

Since moving to the area I’ve had 3 friends from CA ping me about exactly that — wanting to experience our great city but being stranded over there.

[Author]

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