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In 1894 the Firth Wheel at the San Francisco Exhibition was only 100-feet-diameter and the elevation gave a spectacular view of more than 300 feet above the Pacific Ocean.

In the 1890's Walter B. Basset started manufacturing ferris wheels to compete with George Ferris. The first was the Great Wheel in London for the Oriental Exhibition of 1895. This wheel had cars for smoking and non-smoking and a hollow axle to walk through for an additional fee. His Gigantic Wheel at the Seaside Resort of Blackpool featured a car equipped with a ping pong table. He then created a 30-foot wheel, La Grande Roue, for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, it was dismantled in 1920. The Risenrad was built in Vienna in 1897 and rebuilt after being damaged during WWII. It was the world's largest operating ferris wheel until 1981 at 197 feet. Then in Japan a 208-foot model was built.

Today the largest ferris wheel is the Giant Peter and it is 279 feet in diameter. It is located over Himeji Central Park in Hyogo, Japan.

In 1996, a proposal for 500-foot diameter wheel to be constructed beside the Thammes River in London to mark the turn of the millenium was announced.

William E. Sullivan, another competitor, concentrated on developing a more portable model. In 1900 his first 45-foot diameter wheel was built in a park in Jacksonville, Illinois and it could be moved in a matter of hours. The Eli Bridge Company in Jacksonville remains a major manufacturer of ferris wheels.

Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, applied his experience with bascule bridges to design and patent the Aeroscope, which raised 118 people about 200 feet above the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and turned about is base to give everyone a panoramic view of San Francisco. The ride had a single car as big as a two-story house so that all passengers were up in the air at the same time.

On Coney Island's 135 foot Wonder Wheel 16 of the 24 cars are mounted on tracks so that they move in and out each time the wheel marks a revolution.

Another ride the Zipper, can load only two cars at a time allowing the cars to swing freely and turn upside down.

Other variations on the ferris wheel enable the whole wheel to be lowered to a horizontal position so that all cars can be loaded and unloaded simultaneously. While one of the cars is being loaded the rest of the cars on the Sky Whirl can continue to rotate high above Six Flags Great America Theme Park in Gurnee, Illinois.