BRIGHTON and Hove has reinvented itself with a "bonkers idea" borne out of impossible optimism.

That is the message from the creators of the i360 whose 12 year sky-high dream becomes a reality this week.

Dominating the seafront skyline, the so-called vertical cable car will open its glass pod to the public for the first time tomorrow.

Guiding the first private group of visitors up the creation yesterday, architect David Marks said: "Like the much loved West Pier it proposes simply to delight entertain and impress.

"Brighton and Hove has again reinvented itself.

"I feel very proud and a little bit sentimental to see this day."

His wife and fellow architect Julia Barfield added: "David came up with this bonkers idea."

The project was beset with pitfalls. Having started planning in earnest in 2006, in 2008 they bought 600 tonnes of steel shortly before the global financial crisis hit.

But after six years of storing the giant metal cans in Hollandia's Netherlands warehouse, they were finally put to use.

Mr Marks' determination throughout carried the project to fruition.

"It was not just David's persistence, but his impossible almost irrepressible optimism," said his wife and business partner.

British Airways i360 chief executive Eleanor Harris said it was the most "incredibly exciting" week, which she has been waiting for for 10 years.

She said: "I feel like we are in a giant space ship.

"I hope you love it as much as I do."

Yesterday workmen were busy rushing around to put the finishing touches on the project. Tarmac was being steamrolled. Bags of power tools were hurriedly removed from the pod as the city's media arrived.

Glynn Jones, chairman of the West Pier Trust, said that the i360 represented the same kind of architectural vision displayed by the Grade I listed West Pier's designer Eugenius Birch 150 years ago.

"This city has always embraced the new at the same time as celebrating history," he said.

Brighton and Hove is set to earn £1 million a year from the attraction - as well as 1 per cent of ticket sales.

The first project to benefit from the proceeds of the new tourist attraction will be new landscaping on the seafront either side of the tower's site, the deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council Gill Mitchell announced yesterday.

Work will begin in January and be expected to be completed ready for next summer.

Coun Mitchell said: "The i360 is the biggest tourist attraction to be built in this city in well over a hundred years.

"The seafront requires considerable renewal to retain our place as a top coastal visitor attraction,

"The i360 will play a key role in that.

"If it makes only a fraction of the impact of the London Eye then it will have a huge impact.

"The i360 has been built to bring tourists and their money to Brighton and Hove.

"It will pay the council £1million a year so we will continue to see improvement.

"The first payment will be spent on new landscaping either side of this attraction. Work on this will start in January and be completed for next summer season."

However as the pod rose with the first sets of visitors on board Conservative councillors Mary Mears and Steve Bell said they would boycott their invitation of a private view tomorrow "due to the use of public money being borrowed for a private venture."

Councillor Bell said: "Should the i360 fail (which I really hope it is a great success) then the council tax payers in Brighton will be left with this debt.

VIEWING CITY FROM ON HIGH IS NO LONGER PIE IN THE SKY

FOR more than a decade Brightonians have been debating the pie (or doughnut) in the sky idea of the i360.

Many speculated it would never happen but this week is the first chance to get a whole new perspective on our city from 138 metres above the West Pier.

On a 30-minute trip up the world’s tallest vertical cable car yesterday – slightly longer than the usual 20 minutes most visitors will get – a new dimension is added to Brighton and Hove.

The city has gone three dimensional.

The ascent is almost undetectably smooth. If you don’t keep your eyes on a fixed spot on the horizon you almost can’t tell you are rising.

The whole experience is so seamless there is almost a disappointing lack of vertigo even at full height.

As we loomed over Sussex Heights – previously the city’s tallest structure – one of my fellow guests enquired about the privacy of those who live in the high-rises, who may wish to sunbathe naked on their balconies.

As you glide up, the hard hats and neon tabards of the workmen frantically finishing off the building works along the base are replaced by a slightly voyeuristic perspective of previously unseen angles.

You can see deliveries in and out of the backs of the seafront hotels.

The roofs of buildings which appear grand and beautiful from street level are totally changed.

The ugliness of the Brighton Centre is actually far less grotesque from above – a simple grey box.

The city’s architecture may not have been designed to be viewed from above but the change of perspective.

The geometry of randomly-placed collections of ordinary objects like the rows of sailing boats on the beach or cars parked in Regency Square take on a kind of ordered aesthetic.

Between each pair of groynes the tide laps up to a different point on the beach. Whereas the normal pebble-eye view of the beach only affords a vista across a couple of groynes, the wider angle stretches along the Sussex coast.

British Airways director Lynne Embleton tells me that on a clear day you will be able to see to Chichester, and maybe Gatwick.

Yesterday you could see Brighton Marina, Seven Dials and the murky outline of Worthing Pier.

A day of poor visibility – unfortunately not an entirely uncommon occurrence in August on the south coast of England – may leave some to question the merits of a viewing tower.

Even on a rainy overcast day there is no denying that the glass pod provides a whole new sequence of views on the city – though perhaps not 360 degrees of views, with half of it a grey sea under grey sky.

That said there is something new to behold from looking down on the water – the formation of the seaweed just along the beach.

For the northerly 180-odd degrees you are treated to a series of views of the cityscape normally reserved for aerial photography.

To the south it offers a new way of looking at Eugenius Birch’s masterpiece.

You can look down on the charred cage and see the damage to the once-imposing beautiful structure is just as devastating from all angles.

Inside, the pod is spartan. A small bar serves drinks on evening flights and special events. Otherwise a narrow row of seats along the inner wall are the only interruptions from the uninterrupted view.

A white metal floor and curved glass are the only things to look at – other than miles and miles of unadulterated views.