Every town has a landmark. Jacksonville has a working piece of American amusement history. At the corner of Morton Avenue and Main Street, the Big Eli Ferris Wheel No. 17 has been turning over Community Park since 1955 — built in 1907 by the same Jacksonville company that has been manufacturing Ferris wheels longer than almost anyone on the planet. We flew our drone over the park on a September afternoon while the wheel was spinning with riders aboard, and captured the icon the way most people never get to see it: from above.
The Town That Builds Ferris Wheels
The story starts in 1893, when a Jacksonville bridge builder named W.E. Sullivan rode the original 264-foot Ferris Wheel at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Most people got off that ride impressed. Sullivan got off with a business plan: a Ferris wheel small enough to travel, light enough to raise in a day, and tough enough to run every day of fair season.
On May 23, 1900, his first Big Eli Wheel carried its first riders right here in Jacksonville. The Eli Bridge Company he founded went on to become one of the most famous amusement ride manufacturers in America — and it never left town. More than 120 years later, the company is still family-run, still headquartered in Jacksonville, and still shipping wheels (and its other classic, the Scrambler) to parks and carnivals around the world.
Wheel No. 17, the star of these photos, rolled out of the factory in 1907 and spent decades working fairs before the city gave it a permanent home in Community Park in 1955 as a memorial to Sullivan. It is not a statue — it still runs, and locals still ride it.
About This Shoot
We photographed the wheel from the air on September 22nd, working the corner of Morton Avenue and Main Street from multiple altitudes. The goal was to capture the relationships you cannot see from the ground: the wheel against the brick Jacksonville welcome sign and its flower beds, the American and Illinois flags snapping on the plaza, the geometry of the spokes from directly overhead, and the riders enjoying a spin 100+ years after the wheel first turned.
Two of the hero frames got extra love in post-production — we digitally removed the power lines that cross the corner so the wheel and sign stand clean against the park. That is the difference between a snapshot and an asset a city, a chamber, or a tourism campaign can actually use.
Jacksonville doesn’t just have a Ferris wheel. Jacksonville is where Ferris wheels come from.
From Bridge Parts to the Midway: The Eli Bridge Story
What makes the wheel in Community Park more than a pretty photo subject is the company behind it. Sullivan’s genius was treating a Ferris wheel like a bridge problem. The original 1893 wheel in Chicago was a marvel, but it was also a one-off — a colossal machine that took months to assemble and could never leave its site. Sullivan wanted the opposite: a wheel built from strong, standardized steel components that a small crew could tear down, load on a wagon, and raise again in the next town by the weekend.
That portability is what put Big Eli wheels on midways across America. County fairs — including our own Morgan County Fair, which we photographed from the air last summer — became the natural habitat of Sullivan’s invention. And because the wheels were engineered rather than improvised, many of them simply refused to wear out. No. 17 is the proof: it was already nearly half a century old when Jacksonville installed it in Community Park, and it has now been spinning there for seventy years on top of that.
The company Sullivan founded added another icon to its catalog in the 1950s — the Scrambler, the spinning flat ride that still shows up at nearly every carnival in the country. Both machines are still built by Eli Bridge in Jacksonville today, which quietly makes this small Morgan County city one of the amusement industry’s most historic addresses.
Reading the Photos: What the Drone Sees
A few frames worth lingering on as you scroll the gallery below. The top-down shots flatten the wheel into a perfect twelve-spoke wheel-within-a-wheel — you can see the elegance of Sullivan’s engineering in a way no ground-level photo can show, right down to the counterweighted seats hanging in their arcs. From directly overhead, a 117-year-old machine looks like a precision instrument.
The Morton Avenue corner frames tell the civic story: street sign, brick welcome sign, flower beds, flags, and the wheel stacked in one composition. That corner is thousands of drivers’ first impression of Jacksonville every day, and the city planted its most meaningful landmark right on it.
And the rider frames are our favorites. There is something quietly great about photographing a working antique — not a museum piece behind a rope, but red and blue seats swinging with families in them, the same way they did when Theodore Roosevelt was president.
The Aerial Gallery
Nine drone photographs of the Big Eli Wheel and Community Park. Click any photo to view it full-screen.
Seeing It in Person
The Big Eli Wheel stands in Community Park at the corner of Morton Avenue and Main Street in Jacksonville — you cannot miss it coming into town from the east. The plaza around it includes the memorial to W.E. Sullivan, the flag display, and the brick Jacksonville welcome sign from our photos. The wheel is fenced and lovingly maintained, and it runs for riders during select community events and summer evenings each year — worth timing a visit around if you have kids, a camera, or any affection for Americana.
While you are in town: Community Park sits minutes from downtown Jacksonville’s square, and the Eli Bridge factory itself — still producing wheels — is part of the same hometown story. For a small city, Jacksonville stacks up an unusual amount of history per block, which is exactly why we keep pointing our drone at it.
Why Landmark Photography Matters
Images like these do real work. They anchor tourism pages, chamber campaigns, event promotions, editorial features, and the social posts that remind people why they love where they live. For businesses, the same aerial storytelling turns a storefront, a job site, or a grand opening into content people actually stop scrolling for — we have done it for the Morgan County Fair, downtown events, and businesses all over Jacksonville and Central Illinois.
If your brand, venue, or event deserves the aerial treatment, our drone photography and video services cover everything from single-location shoots to full campaign libraries — FAA-certified, insured, and edited in-house.
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Big Eli Wheel & Drone Photography FAQ
What is the Big Eli Ferris Wheel in Jacksonville, IL?
It is Big Eli Wheel No. 17, a Ferris wheel built in 1907 by the Eli Bridge Company — the ride manufacturer founded by W.E. Sullivan right here in Jacksonville. The wheel has stood in Community Park at Morton Avenue and Main Street since 1955 as a working memorial to Sullivan, and it still carries riders during community events every year.
Why is Jacksonville called the home of the Ferris wheel?
After seeing the original Ferris Wheel at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Jacksonville bridge builder W.E. Sullivan set out to build a portable version. His first Big Eli Wheel carried its first riders in Jacksonville on May 23, 1900, and the Eli Bridge Company has been manufacturing Ferris wheels in town ever since — making Jacksonville one of the few places on Earth where Ferris wheels have been built continuously for over 120 years.
Can you still ride the Big Eli Wheel in Community Park?
Yes — the wheel is maintained in working condition and offers rides during select community events and summer evenings. The photos in this post were taken on a September afternoon while the wheel was running with riders aboard.
How were these aerial photos of the Ferris wheel captured?
We flew an FAA Part 107–certified drone over Community Park, framing the wheel against the brick Jacksonville welcome sign, the Morton Avenue corner, and the flags on the plaza. Select frames were retouched in post-production to remove distracting power lines while keeping the scene true to life.
Can Elevated Ideas shoot drone photos or video for my business or event?
Absolutely. We produce aerial photography and video for businesses, events, real estate, and municipalities across Jacksonville, Springfield, and all of Central Illinois — fully licensed and insured. Visit our drone photography and video page or call (217) 724-8153 for a quick quote.
How much does drone photography cost in Jacksonville, IL?
Most local photo sessions fall into an affordable flat-rate package, with pricing based on the location, the number of edited images, and whether video is included. Reach out for a fast, no-pressure quote — most shoots are scheduled within a week.