It does not cost anything to take the boat there. A quaint waterfront minor league baseball stadium offers sweeping views of Lower Manhattan and cheap tickets. A fort dating to the War of 1812 is one of the country’s oldest military installations. There had been talk of a Nascar track.

And yet the problem persists — how to get tourists to venture out onto Staten Island and not take the next ferry right back to Manhattan.

Now, New York City officials believe they have the answer: a gigantic wheel.

Or, more precisely, a 630-foot-tall one that would become one of the world’s largest Ferris wheels.

It is the city’s latest and arguably most ambitious attempt to draw tourists to Staten Island. Workers have begun laying the foundation for the wheel, which, when it opens for business in two years, will carry as many as 1,440 riders and be visible across New York Harbor.