The wheel rotates on a pair of custom-designed spherical roller bearings, each weighing approximately 19,400 lb. Each bearing has an outer diameter of 7.55 feet, an inner bore of 5.25 feet, and a width of 2.07 feet.
The outer rim comprises 28 sections, each 56 feet long, which were temporarily held in place during construction by a pair of 275-foot radial struts, prior to being permanently secured by four cables.
The passenger cabins (or capsules) are mounted on the wheel’s outboard rim and are individually rotated by electric motors to smoothly maintain a horizontal cabin floor throughout each full rotation. Preliminary designs anticipated 32 passenger cabins, each with a 40-passenger capacity — with the final design accommodating 28 40-person cabins and a total capacity of 1,120 passengers.
Each 225-square-foot cabin weighs approximately 44,000 pounds, has a diameter of 22 feet, includes 300 square feet of glass, and is equipped with eight flat-screen televisions.
At night the wheel is illuminated by a 2,000-LED system which can display a single solid color, differently colored sections, multiple colors moving around the rim, and custom displays for special events and holidays.
Wikipedia