The Lincoln Memorial’s 36 columns were built to represent the states that existed at the time of President Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865. The architect, Henry Bacon, used stones from Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, Indiana, Alabama, and Massachusetts, to exemplify the importance of unity. The dates of each state’s admission into the Union are engraved in Roman numerals.

The art deco style of architecture played a major aesthetic role in the city of Miami's development, and today, Miami Beach’s one-square-mile Art Deco District is home to approximately 800 historically significant art deco buildings, including many hotels. That represents the largest concentration of art deco architecture from the 1920s and 1930s in the United States.

Mammoth Cave in west-central Kentucky has more than 412 miles of surveyed passageways, and there may be quite a lot more — scientists estimate the cave stretches about 1,000 total miles. The cave system is part of Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941 to protect the underground labyrinth of caves, as well as the history and ecological richness they contain.

Balboa Park is a sprawling city park that includes 17 museums, as well as the world-famous San Diego Zoo. City leaders set aside the land in 1868, making San Diego the second U.S. city to dedicate a large urban park (after New York’s Central Park in 1853). In 1910, the park was named for Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the first European to cross Central America and see the Pacific Ocean.

Long before it was a military fort, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, was the chapel of a Roman Catholic mission. Franciscan missionaries laid the foundation stone for the first permanent building at the site in 1744. By 1805, the site was being used as a fort to treat Spanish soldiers who had been injured on the frontier, and it became famous for its eponymous battle in 1836.

It may not look like it, but the width of St. Louis’ Gateway Arch is the same as its height. Standing 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide, the monument is a real-life optical illusion — perhaps the largest optical illusion in the world. Completed in 1965, the 43,226-ton arch is the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere and the world’s tallest arch.

More than 40 million people visit Walt Disney World Resort each year, paying $109 to $159 for a ticket, depending on the date. But when the theme park opened in October 1971 in Orlando, the park charged just $3.50 per person for general admission. Adjusted for inflation, that would be approximately $21 in today’s dollars.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park received 14.1 million visits in 2021 — nearly three times as many people as the next park on the list, Yellowstone. The park straddles the forested ridges between North Carolina and Tennessee and is known for exceptional hiking trails and abundant wildflowers. It’s home to 1,500 kinds of flowering plants — the most of any North American national park.

Before it was known simply as the White House, the U.S. President’s place of residence enjoyed several different nicknames. Initially denoted on early maps as the President’s Palace, the White House was officially named the Executive Mansion in 1819, in order to avoid any monarchical undertones. The "White House" nickname was in use around that time, and it was President Theodore Roosevelt who made the nickname official in 1902.

If you drive north on U.S. 101 out of San Francisco, you’ll cruise across one of America’s most famous brides right into Marin County. If you’re traveling without a car, you can also make the trip on foot, by bicycle, or on a popular tour bus ride. Many tourists also stop to admire the view of the city from just across the bridge.

Old Faithful has been captivating visitors of Yellowstone National Park since it was first discovered in 1870. The geyser in Wyoming spouts off 130 to 190 feet of water every 92 minutes on average. Crowds gather around Old Faithful to see the phenomenon, which is produced by pressures below and boiling water from an underground stream.

The Hollywood sign is an omnipresent symbol of America’s entertainment industry, but the intent behind the original 1923 sign is a bit less exciting. It was part of an advertising campaign for a housing development called “Hollywoodland.” In 1949, the city decided to remove the word “land” so that the sign would better represent the entire region.

Times Square’s name was Long Acre Square, and it wasn’t until 1904 that the spot was renamed Times Square, in honor of the construction of the New York Times headquarters. This still-recognizable Gothic structure was the city’s second-tallest skyscraper at the time, measuring 430 feet tall. Today, the headquarters are a couple blocks west at the nearby New York Times Building at 8th Avenue in between 40th and 41st Streets, which was completed in 2007.

It may be called the Las Vegas Strip, but the majority of the 4.2-mile stretch of glittering lights is technically located in Paradise, an unincorporated part of Clark County, Nevada, that was created to avoid city taxes. Iconic casinos, such as Caesars Palace and MGM Grand, live just south of Las Vegas proper.

Five to six million years ago, the Colorado River carved through sediment and volcanic rock in northwest Arizona to form the Grand Canyon, which measures over 6,000 feet deep at its deepest point. The sixth-longest river in the U.S., the Colorado River starts in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and travels 1,450 miles through seven states and Mexico.

The buildings on Navy Pier were originally erected on an existing shipping pier to house soldiers and sailors and military operations during World War I, a use that continued through the end of World War II. In 1995, the 50-acre site was transformed into an amusement and entertainment hub, topped by an enormous 196-foot Ferris wheel that is a fixture of the Chicago skyline.

Mount Rushmore features the carved-rock faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. However, John Adams — the second U.S. President — is not among them. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who finished the project in 1941, selected these presidents because he felt they represented America’s most important historical moments.

True Starbucks aficionados know that the coffee shop got its start in Seattle, Washington, at Pike Place Market, the city’s beloved public market. (Or perhaps you’ve noticed that the brand’s signature house blend of coffee is called Pike Place.) The market was established on August 17, 1907 — making it one of the oldest continuously operated farmers markets in the U.S.

The thunderous Niagara Falls are part of the Niagara River on the border between Canada and the U.S. Water empties from Lake Erie into the Niagara River, which flows north through the falls and into Lake Ontario, the last in the Great Lakes chain, before flowing through the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long walking tour through Boston, featuring 16 sites that were significant to America’s fight for independence. Popular stops along the trail include the Boston Common, Paul Revere’s House, and the Bunker Hill Monument, which commemorates the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War.

Opened at Florida’s Walt Disney World on October 1, 1982, EPCOT is an acronym for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” The revolutionary theme park sought to bring together the newest technologies and innovations of its time in one futuristic utopia, which is now one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.

Famous for its lively party atmosphere, Bourbon Street in New Orleans' historic French Quarter is named for the royal House of Bourbon in France, which came to rule in the 16th century. But there’s nothing royal or pretentious about this street; in fact, Bourbon Street is so laid-back, the “to-go cup” was invented here.

A unique outdoor weight room right on the beach, Muscle Beach has attracted bodybuilders from all over the world, including celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, since it opened in 1951. Crowds still come to watch the bodybuilding contests throughout the year. Muscle Beach Venice was inspired by the original Muscle Beach, located just a few miles north in Santa Monica.

The Statue of Liberty holds a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left, known as the tablet of law, inscribed with the date of American independence — July 4, 1776 — written in Roman numerals. The tablet measures 23 feet tall and 13 feet wide — taller than an adult giraffe!

Mount Rushmore is by far the largest tourist attraction in South Dakota, and residents are so proud of it that the state is officially nicknamed the “Mount Rushmore State.” The towering monument — featuring the giant carved faces of four U.S. Presidents — attracts over 2 million people each year to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

You can shop till you drop at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. The largest mall in the United States, it features over 5 million square feet of retail space and even has its own ZIP code. The mall was built in 1992 and now has more than 500 stores and 20,000 parking spaces, in addition to its own theme park and aquarium.