INETRESTING FACTS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES

The united states of America offers such a diverse collection of attractions.While every major city may each have a great art museum or two,fantastic zoos/aquariums,monuments,historical sites and theme park of some sort or another-they each differ in their own special way and it never fails to leave me feeling inspired and motivated to dig a little deeper to finding out how things got to where they are today.So here it is folks,starting with my all time favorite fact about the third most populous country in the world.

1. The Statue of Liberty
   
   is associated with New York city,but it is actually physically located in New Jersey.The seven rays on the crown of the statue Liberty represents the seven continents;each measured up to 9 feet in length and weigh as much as 150 pounds.
2. The tallest mountain in the world
   
   is actually located in the United States.It is actually taller than Mount Everest (more than twice Mt. Everest base-to-peak height) when measured from the sea floor.It is called Mauna Kea and it is located in Hawaii.While it is only 13,796 feet in altitude above sea level,when measured from the sea floor it is over 32,000 feet high,while Mount Everest is 29,028 feet high.
3. The Liberty Bell
   
   was last rung on George Washington's birthday in 1846.It received it.s fatal crack a few hours later.The bell is said to have been built for $225.50 and it was rung on July 8 1776 for the first public reading of the declaration of independence.Today it is officially owned by the city of Philadelphia,while the national park service maintains it's state-of-the-art facilities,where it has been housed since 2003,nearby independence hall and visiting is free of charge.
4. Americans eat about 100 acres of Pizza
   
   each day,with about 3 billion pizzas sold annually in the USA.93% of Americans are said to have eaten last month.Delivery sale of the pizza spike the most during close Superbowl game.There are over 60,000 pizzerias in the USA and America's oldest Pizza opened in 1905 and it's called Lambardi's and it is located in NYC.
5. There are 182 places in the US that have Christmas  in their name.
   
   Such as Ariz and Christmas Valley,Christmas Island in Florida and even some lakes such as Christmas lake in Washington.                                                                                                      Of course there is a variety of year-round Christmas themed places in Alaska.
6. Chicago is the birth place of the first ever ferris wheel
   
   ,which was 264 feet tall and debuted in the year 1893 World's fair and was demolished shortly after in 1906.today the 150 foot tall one at Navy pier is modeled after the original one.Also housed at Navy pier is the children's museum,an IMAX and the Smith Museum of Stained glass Windows.Since 2008,the world's largest ferris wheel has been the singapore flyer,at 541 feet tall.
7. New Jersey is home to the world's largest roller coaster.Kingda ka
   
   ,at Six Flags Great Adventure in N.J. stands a whooping 45 stories tall,plummeting 456 feet and reaching speeds up to 126 mph.
8. Women got the right to vote in the United States in 1920  .
   
   Thank's to the 19th Amendment,there  is actually a Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls,NY.It tells the story of the first women's right convention,which was held in this very spot in 1848.Some of the best Women's history museums in DC include  the Sewell-Belmont House,the National Women's History Museum,Hillwood Museum Estate & Gardens and National Museum of Women in the Arts.
9. The grizzly bear is the official state animal of California.
   
10. The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world
    
    by area,with 17 miles of corridors.The US capital could fit into just one of the buildings five side.It actually has twice the as the Empire State Building.It was built in Arlington,Virginia in 1943 at a cost of $83 million as the headquarter of the US department of defense.It has five sides,five floors above ground,five ring corridors per floor and a five acre central plaza that is known as ground zero.Hence the name penta which means five.It would have been built higher but they did not to block the scenic views of the area and also had a steel shortage which prevented them.On 9/11 ,the 60th anniversary of the ground breaking,i am sure the people who managed to escape were thrilled that it was not built any higher,as it was hijacked along with the world trade center,killing 189 people.It was reconstructed shortly afterwards,as the $5 billion Phoenix Project was completed in 2003.Just try and hijack us now and see what happens.                                                                                                       They actually have twice as many bathrooms as necessary because it was built in a time of segregation,where they felt the need to built separate facilities for black and white employees.But during the construction laws were changed and it ended up opening as the only non-segregated building in Virginia.
11. Harvard was the first university in the US
    
    and was founded in 1636 and is located in Cambridge.It is considered to be the second best university in the world,right after MIT.The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a popular tourist spot,featuring the Universities items and artifacts that relate to the natural world.Objects on the display include the largest turtle shell in the world,a 42 feet long prehistoric marine reptile skeleton and over 3000 glass flowers which model over 840 plant species.
12. The longest stone arch bridge in the world is the Rockville Bridge
    
    in Marysville,Pennsylvania,which was completed in 1902 and spans a total length of 3,820 feet.The bridge is currently used by the Norfolk Southern railway and Amtrak.