Monday, July 04, 2011 10:55:21 PM
America's Most Beautiful Landmarks .. some of ..
Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, was first lit in 1791 by whale-oil lamps.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42436007/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/hats-americas-most-beautiful-landmarks/
Niagara Falls, NY
More than 750,000 gallons of water per second thunder down this iconic 167-foot waterfall—the most powerful on the North American continent. The falls straddle the border between the U.S. and Canada, and though some argue that Horseshoe Falls—set on the Ontario side—is more spectacular than the smaller American Falls, the landmark has held a particular place in American history ever since 1901, when Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over the falls (and survive) in a barrel.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, SD
Carved into a granite mountain face in South Dakota’s southwesterly Black Hills, this sculpture of four of America’s most influential presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt) was considered an extraordinary feat of engineering when it was completed in 1941—and it’s still majestic today, bringing in more than two million visitors per year.
The Wave, Coyote Buttes, AZ
Set in the remote Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness in northern Arizona, this dazzling rock formation, which looks like a cresting wave frozen in time, isn’t easy to access: you’ll need a permit from the Bureau of Land Management, which allows only 20 people per day to visit the delicate landform. But getting to see this fiery swirl of Jurassic-age sandstone, carved by the wind more than 190 million years ago, is well worth a little advance planning.
The Giant Forest, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, CA
Located in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, this three-square-mile forest of massive giant sequoias is home to the General Sherman Tree, the world’s largest tree by volume (52,508 cubic feet). The other trees here are jaw-dropping, too—on average, they are as tall as 26-story buildings and have base diameters wider than many city streets. Equally awe-inspiring as these conifers’ grand size, though, is their age: most are between 1,800 and 2,700 years old.
Kilauea Volcano, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, HI
The legendary home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, this 4,091-foot-high peak is located on the southeastern part of the Big Island of Hawaii. Appropriately named after the Hawaiian word for “spewing” or “much spreading,” this is one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes. Continuous eruptive activity has occurred here since 1983, creating devastating-but-beautiful lava flows that have etched their way across the dramatic landscape.
INSERT VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3jY4wzQPGs
Taos Pueblo, Taos, NM
Set at the base of the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, this multistoried adobe compound is one of the country’s best-preserved Pueblo Indian settlements. The pueblo, which was built before 1400 and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the States, consists of ceremonial buildings and individual homes built from adobe—bricks made from earth mixed with straw and water—and decorated with bright turquoise doors. While visitors are welcome, approximately 150 people are lucky enough to call this UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark home.
Grand Central Terminal, New York City
Constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, this Beaux-Arts beauty’s interior is as lovely as its exterior. Usually teeming with crowds of commuters, the cavernous main concourse is full of dazzling architectural details, including the much-photographed information booth with its four-faced clock; the domed gold-and-cerulean-blue ceiling painted with astronomical signs and studded with fiber-optic stars; and grand staircases, arched passageways, and palatial mezzanines (housing cocktail bars, where you can sip while you people-watch).
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
While this stainless-steel-faced landmark is officially called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, it’s better known as the Gateway Arch because of St. Louis’s position as the gateway to the West in the 19th century. Completed in 1965 and designed by architect Eero Saarinen, the 630-foot structure is America’s tallest monument—more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
Carlsbad Cavern, Carlsbad Cavern National Park, NM
Beneath the desert landscape of the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico are more than 100 limestone caves formed by sulfuric acid over the past few millennia. The most famous is Carlsbad Cavern, a geological wonder whose massive subterranean chambers reveal beautiful formations, including stalactites and stalagmites that hang from the ceiling and grow from the cave floor.
Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis
Consisting of 23 arches made of native granite and limestone, the bridge offers spectacular panoramas of St. Anthony Falls across the Mississippi River. Built as a railroad bridge in 1883, it’s been open to pedestrians and bicyclists since 1994.
Dry Tortugas National Park/Fort Jefferson, Florida Keys
These seven islands, made from coral reefs and sand, are at the far end of the Florida Keys and closer to Cuba than the American mainland. They are notable not only for Fort Jefferson—a large 19th-century masonry fort built to guard the Gulf Coast—but also for the colorful marine life best viewed while snorkeling in the pristine waters.
Monument Valley, UT/AZ
Straddling the Utah and Arizona border on a Navajo Tribal Park, this vast desert valley is punctuated by red siltstone buttes sculpted by the wind into hand-like shapes known as “mittens.” Director John Ford immortalized the landscape in western films like The Searchers.
Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY
Carved out by glaciers, this pristine lake reflects the snowcapped Teton mountain range that rises directly from its shoreline. Swimmers and kayakers flock to these placid waters in the summertime.
MORE >> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42436007/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/hats-americas-most-beautiful-landmarks/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmEDa6bUGCg
Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, was first lit in 1791 by whale-oil lamps.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42436007/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/hats-americas-most-beautiful-landmarks/
Niagara Falls, NY
More than 750,000 gallons of water per second thunder down this iconic 167-foot waterfall—the most powerful on the North American continent. The falls straddle the border between the U.S. and Canada, and though some argue that Horseshoe Falls—set on the Ontario side—is more spectacular than the smaller American Falls, the landmark has held a particular place in American history ever since 1901, when Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over the falls (and survive) in a barrel.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, SD
Carved into a granite mountain face in South Dakota’s southwesterly Black Hills, this sculpture of four of America’s most influential presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt) was considered an extraordinary feat of engineering when it was completed in 1941—and it’s still majestic today, bringing in more than two million visitors per year.
The Wave, Coyote Buttes, AZ
Set in the remote Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness in northern Arizona, this dazzling rock formation, which looks like a cresting wave frozen in time, isn’t easy to access: you’ll need a permit from the Bureau of Land Management, which allows only 20 people per day to visit the delicate landform. But getting to see this fiery swirl of Jurassic-age sandstone, carved by the wind more than 190 million years ago, is well worth a little advance planning.
The Giant Forest, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, CA
Located in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, this three-square-mile forest of massive giant sequoias is home to the General Sherman Tree, the world’s largest tree by volume (52,508 cubic feet). The other trees here are jaw-dropping, too—on average, they are as tall as 26-story buildings and have base diameters wider than many city streets. Equally awe-inspiring as these conifers’ grand size, though, is their age: most are between 1,800 and 2,700 years old.
Kilauea Volcano, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, HI
The legendary home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, this 4,091-foot-high peak is located on the southeastern part of the Big Island of Hawaii. Appropriately named after the Hawaiian word for “spewing” or “much spreading,” this is one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes. Continuous eruptive activity has occurred here since 1983, creating devastating-but-beautiful lava flows that have etched their way across the dramatic landscape.
INSERT VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3jY4wzQPGs
Taos Pueblo, Taos, NM
Set at the base of the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, this multistoried adobe compound is one of the country’s best-preserved Pueblo Indian settlements. The pueblo, which was built before 1400 and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the States, consists of ceremonial buildings and individual homes built from adobe—bricks made from earth mixed with straw and water—and decorated with bright turquoise doors. While visitors are welcome, approximately 150 people are lucky enough to call this UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark home.
Grand Central Terminal, New York City
Constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, this Beaux-Arts beauty’s interior is as lovely as its exterior. Usually teeming with crowds of commuters, the cavernous main concourse is full of dazzling architectural details, including the much-photographed information booth with its four-faced clock; the domed gold-and-cerulean-blue ceiling painted with astronomical signs and studded with fiber-optic stars; and grand staircases, arched passageways, and palatial mezzanines (housing cocktail bars, where you can sip while you people-watch).
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
While this stainless-steel-faced landmark is officially called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, it’s better known as the Gateway Arch because of St. Louis’s position as the gateway to the West in the 19th century. Completed in 1965 and designed by architect Eero Saarinen, the 630-foot structure is America’s tallest monument—more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
Carlsbad Cavern, Carlsbad Cavern National Park, NM
Beneath the desert landscape of the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico are more than 100 limestone caves formed by sulfuric acid over the past few millennia. The most famous is Carlsbad Cavern, a geological wonder whose massive subterranean chambers reveal beautiful formations, including stalactites and stalagmites that hang from the ceiling and grow from the cave floor.
Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis
Consisting of 23 arches made of native granite and limestone, the bridge offers spectacular panoramas of St. Anthony Falls across the Mississippi River. Built as a railroad bridge in 1883, it’s been open to pedestrians and bicyclists since 1994.
Dry Tortugas National Park/Fort Jefferson, Florida Keys
These seven islands, made from coral reefs and sand, are at the far end of the Florida Keys and closer to Cuba than the American mainland. They are notable not only for Fort Jefferson—a large 19th-century masonry fort built to guard the Gulf Coast—but also for the colorful marine life best viewed while snorkeling in the pristine waters.
Monument Valley, UT/AZ
Straddling the Utah and Arizona border on a Navajo Tribal Park, this vast desert valley is punctuated by red siltstone buttes sculpted by the wind into hand-like shapes known as “mittens.” Director John Ford immortalized the landscape in western films like The Searchers.
Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY
Carved out by glaciers, this pristine lake reflects the snowcapped Teton mountain range that rises directly from its shoreline. Swimmers and kayakers flock to these placid waters in the summertime.
MORE >> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42436007/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/hats-americas-most-beautiful-landmarks/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmEDa6bUGCg
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