7 Wonders of the USA

Golden Gate BridgeThe Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay onto the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed during the year 1937, and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and California. Since its completion, the span length has been surpassed by eight other bridges. It still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

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Times SquareTimes Square is a major intersection in Manhattan, a borough of New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. The Times Square area consists of the blocks between Sixth and Eighth Avenues from east to west, and West 40th and West 53rd Streets from south to north, making up the western part of the commercial area of Midtown Manhattan.

Formerly Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed after the Times Building (now One Times Square), the former offices of the New York Times, in April 1904. Times Square, sometimes known as the "Crossroads of the World," has achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and has become a symbol of its city. Times Square is principally defined by its spectaculars, animated, digital advertisements.

The intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street, at the southeast corner of Times Square, is the Eastern Terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States of America.

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Statue of LibertyThe Statue of Liberty, officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, is a monument that was presented by the people of France to the United States of America in 1886 to celebrate its centennial. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans traveling by ship. The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and was given to the United States by France to represent the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure.[8] Maurice Koechlin-chief engineer of Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and designer of the Eiffel Tower-engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the repoussé technique, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side.

The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch, and is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf (originally made of copper and later altered to hold glass panes). It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star. The statue is 151 ft (46 m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft (93 m) tall.

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Walt Disney WorldWalt Disney World Resort is the most visited and largest recreational resort in the world, containing four theme parks; two water parks; twenty-three themed hotels; and numerous shopping, dining, entertainment and recreation venues. Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts segment of The Walt Disney Company, it is located southwest of Orlando, Florida. The property is often abbreviated Walt Disney World, Disney World or WDW, and is often referred to by locals as simply Disney.

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Lincoln MemorialLincoln-Memorial-Close-Up
Lincoln-Memorial-overheadThe Lincoln Memorial is a United States Presidential memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue (Abraham Lincoln, 1920) was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin.

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Grand CanyonGrandview-pointThe Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park - one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

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Gateway ArchThe Gateway Arch, also known as the Gateway to the West, is an integral part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the iconic image of St. Louis, Missouri. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. It stands 630 feet (192 m) tall, and is 630 feet (192 m) wide at its base, making it the tallest monument in the United States. Construction of the arch started on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965. The monument opened to the public on July 24, 1967.

7 Wonders of the Natural World

The GRAND CANYON (USA)The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is the largest gorge in the world-a 290-mile-long gash across the face of the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. Rim to rim, it measures up to 18 miles across, with an average width of 10 miles; its average depth is one mile. Within this Delaware-size area of eroded rock rise mountains higher than any in the eastern United States and that dark walls of gorges millions of years old. Agent of this scene, the Colorado River drops 2,200 feet over nearly 200 rapids as it roars through the Canyon toward the Gulf of California.


The NORTHERN LIGHTS (Northern Europe)Northern lights, or Aurora borealis brings together two mythological deities - Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Boreas, Greek god of the north wind - to describe an event witnessed mostly at night in the high northerly latitudes.


Mount EVEREST (the Himalayas)Mount Everest is a rock and snow peak of the Himalayas. It is in Nepal and stands on the border of Tibet. The expedition which first reached the summit, in 1953, was the eighth to make the attempt; there had also been three reconnaissance expeditions. The peak was named after Sir George Everest. Its Tibetan name is Chomolungma. It is the highest mountain in the world. Its height is 29,028 ft. (8,848 m)


The GREAT BARRIER REEF (Australia)Spanning more than 2000 km along the northeastern coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is home to thousands of species of plants and animals. The Reef which runs parallel to the Queensland coast has been designated by the Australian Government as a Marine Park.


The VICTORIA FALLS (Zambezi, Africa)Victoria Falls is one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls. The falls are situated on the Zambezi River, which at this point forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls are broad at roughly a mile (1.6 km) wide, while their height is considerable at 128 m (420 ft). They form a remarkable spectacle because of their peculiar geography — the water falls into a narrow slot-like chasm, and so one can view the falls face-on.


Mountains at RIO de JANEIRO (Brazil)On the east coast of Brazil, the city of Rio de Janeiro hugs the steep hillsides that meet the magnificent Guanabara Bay and Atlantic Ocean.


PARICUTIN volcano (Mexico)
Paricutin exploded out of a Mexican cornfield about 200 miles (322 kilometers) west of Mexico City in early 1943, giving the modern world its first opportunity to witness the birth of a volcano. The lava eventually covered about 10 square miles (25 square kilometers).