Happy 4th - Name the Most Impressive U.S. History Site(s) You've Seen

For me, it was the Vietnam War Memorial; The Wall. I was in college during the war. My then boyfriend, now DH worried about a deferment. My roommates very good friend was killed. After I graduated, we lived near campus and I remember the national guardsmen ringing the campus after Kent State. That feeling, when you come around the corner, see the statue of three guys, and that black with all the names engraved. It took my breath away.

Omaha Beach and the cemetery - absolutely.

As a non-American, the most emotive places I've been to, concerning American history in the States, have certainly been USS Arizona, Oahu and Ground Zero, NYC.
But, much closer to home, about 40-50 miles from where I live, the Sherman tank at Slapton Sands, commemorating the nearly 1000 American servicemen who lost their lives to a German E-boat, while practising for the D-Day Landings - Exercise Tiger I think it was called - is a beautiful place.

I have to say, having never been to Normandy (it's high high on my list), that it would be the Vietnam Memorial. I too was in college during the war, and I was fervently anti-that war. But that doesn't make the memorial any less breathtaking and thought-provoking.

Anyplace in the world it has to be Omaha Beach and cemetery...in the lower 48 it would be the Vietnam Memorial and outside the lower 48, Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial.

Gettysburg, especially walking partway across the fields of Pickett's Charge.

The original "star spangled banner" being restored at the American History Museum in Washington, DC.

Lee Ann

Interesting that the previous replies are mostly related to war. Anyway, mine are:

Mt. Wilson 100 inch telescope.

Lincoln Memorial

Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk.

I chose these because they all gave me that lump in the throat feeling.

Arizona Memorial

Mt. Vernon

Everything in DC

Belleau Wood WWI US Cemetary in France

The World War II memorial in Washington DC, and seeing an old veteran there. Brought tears to my eyes.

The Lincoln Memorial.

The Little Bighorn battlefield.

Vicksburg.

Ellis Island.

A couple of personal places -

1. Ancestral home 1 (Great...great... etc. Grandfather) - near Portsmouth NH, built around 1670-1680 - http://gardyloo.us/nhhse1.jpg

2. Ancestral home 2 - nearby, built around 1750. http://gardyloo.us/nhhouse2.jpg

The family historian (shirt-tail relative) and a museum or two have blankets used by my forefather x 10 or so at Valley Forge, with his name embroidered.

Ditto Picks...Gettysburg. Especially Little Round Top.
Also Antietam, Harper's Ferry and Manassas.

Ford's Theater.

Donner Lake when I'm feeling a bit hungry....

I guess Ellis Island moved me more than any place else. Standing in the great hall just made me weep thinking about my grandmother and great-grandmother going through there in 1907 and what America meant to the poor, uneducated and persecuted Jews. I wouldn't be here if they hadn't come.

Having said that, any American who has not been to Washington, DC, owes himself a trip here. The Capitol, the memorials, Arlington Cemetery, etc., it's all here. That's why I don't want to live anywhere else.

Anytime I go into town, I can immediately raise my eyes and look at the US Capitol. How many of you know, however, that The Capitol's heavy lifting (including the lifting of the "freedom" statue at the top) was all done by African American slaves. US history is full of contradictions--some very embarassing.

Come and visit the Nation's Capital and I challenge you NOT to be moved!

The Vietnam Wall in a torrential downpour

Molokai's Leper Colony

The World Trade Center, still smoking over Thanksgiving

The 40 steps in Newport, RI where servants would meet to hear news from the old country

Plimouth Rock for representing one of the biggest lying tourist trap dissappointments in US history

Arlington Cemetary

Fenway Park

Old North Bridge in Concord, MA

USS Arizona

The Lincoln Memorial - not only for all the obvious reasons - but also because of it's later symbolic associations - including Marion Anderson's concert there after being barred from using the DAR Hall because she was black.

The entire Freedom Trial in Boston

The World Trade Center missing (I still think about it every time I'm returning from a meeting in Jersey and remember how it used to dominate the skyline) - and all the sorrow and sacrifices, bravery and tears - associated with that day

The Charles River Esplanade Hatch Shell hearing the 1812 Overture by the amazing Boston Pops

Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD

The Mall, Washington, DC

Williamsburg, VA

"Donner Lake when I'm feeling a bit hungry...."

Kal, have you been drinking again?

My husband would say: Gettysburg
I say: The Freedom Trail, Lexington, and of course Harvard, proving how important education is that it was established in 1636, only 16 years after the Pilgrims landed.

Insofar as my opinion is worthwhile, I find Gettysburg a bit disappointing. All those memorials all over really do not help you "feel" what happened there. They get in the way.

For a battlefield that was left as is (and I wish they'd remove all the memorials at Gettysburg but it ain't gonna happen), try an Antietim/Sharpsburg. It looks like they cleaned up the bodies and just walked away. You can take photos of the battlefield taken by Matthew Brady and match them with specific locations. Now, that's a battlefield memorial!

smetz beat me to it. Colonial Williamsburg. When you are walking down the street on a early fall morning with the smell of smoke in the air, the sound of hooves on the street, and the costumed interpretors walking around with their baskets you are transported back into the 18th century.

Independence Hall, Philadelphia PA-to me that is where it all started.

Colonial Williamsburg has almost nothing original beyond foundations. It is a reconstruction. It is very interesting, but certainly not what I would call among the most impressive historical sites in the US.

Of course we can all differ about this.

American Cemetery Omaha Beach
Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh
Vietnam, Korean and WWII Memorials
The Capitol
Lincoln Memorial
Arlington Cemetery
Independence Hall
Marine Recruit Graduation for 18-year old grandson Jan 09
God Bless America!

FYI Lauren:

http://www.cw.org/Foundation/newsroom/2009Presskit/2009%20Original%20Buildings.pdf

Fort McHenry
WW2 Memorial
Vietnam Memorial

My daughter and I happened to be near the mall the day they were to dedicate the Korea War Memorial -- anyone was permitted in to hear the dedication and the speeches (by, among others, then-President Clinton). Many vets there of all wars, and it was quite a sight.

The buildings on that list for Colonial Williamsburg are all rebuilt in their original locations (or what they think are the original locations). Even your list (designed to "prove" your point, I suppose, says that. The attraction basically is due to the reconstructions. Very little is original. The list of original buildings in your link means that there were original buildings there and NOT that the buildings on those locations are the original buildings.

Rockefeller foundation money rebuilt Colonial Williamsburg but almost nothing is original. Got it?

Your list in your link says "Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area comprises 301 acres that include 88 original 18th century and early 19th-century structures and hundreds of houses, ops and public outbuildings that HAVE BEEN RECONSTRUCTED on their original foundations. The following is a list of those original structures." [Capital letters added for emphasis]. So the link you posted to prove your point about original structures actually proves my point, not yours. Again Colonial Williamsburg is almost entirely a reconstruction. As with many historical reconstructions, while interesting, it is not necessarily 100% historically accurate because many details have to be inferred. They have done a nice job there but it is certainly not a shrine in the sense of other historical sites mentioned on this thread. I am not saying it is not interesting, but I just don't class it with Independence Hall, Gettysburg, the monuments in DC, the Arizona Memorial. I view CW as more of a historical attraction than a historical site.

By the way, I have visited CW over a dozen times because both of my children went to William & Mary and know it well.

Hmmmm......... How about June 17, 1775 - the Battle of Breed's Hill (aka, Battle of Bunker Hill)? Now, that's really where it all started.

Where it all started is a matter of debate, right?

The Freedom Trail, especially the cemeteries (Boston).

San Antonio Missions Historical Park.

Capitol Building (DC)

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Dayton)

Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown)

have you ever climbed to the top of the bunker hill monument? the climb is fine, but the climb down will rip your calves apart!

staying at the orignal bugsy Flamingo in all it's tacky glory would be a memorable historical site

gyppielou, my thighs and calves are still sore 2 days later!!! I climbed it on July 3rd, and trust me, I am never climbing those 294 steps again! (Not to mention there were about 20+ people up on the top, which only has space for 12 people really...)

Have you ever climbed to the top of the Capitol dome? I can tell you it is the most difficult tour to arrange in DC and I did it a few months ago. You go above the painting at the top of the dome! You have to get a Congressman or Senator to take you up. I have a neighbor who is a Congressman. He used my house for his family for inauguration (I was with a tour group). I refused any monetary payment but asked him for the walk up as "payment". Just great!

Only 7 people can go up at once with the Congressman or Senator. I did take a bunch of friends who also have tour guide licenses in DC.

I forgot to add: It's over 300 steps to the top of the Capitol dome, but you stop a lot to see things. Really not a bad climb. It is arranging it that is the problem.

By the way you can no longer climb to the top of the Washington Monument because too many people had to be "rescued" inside. Talk about steps: 897 steps!

texasjo beat me to it: Parris Island (Oct 1997)

>>Donner Lake when I'm feeling a bit hungry....<<

:-0

I haven't been up that way in years.

Lee Ann

In Italy: WWII cemetary in Nettuno

In US: the Trail of Tears park, what a contrast between the peacefulness of the park, and the dreadful Cherokee river crossing in winter!

Gettysburg

USS Arizona

Come on up...I'll bring the Lawry's, fava beans and a fine Chianti!

Omaha Beach at low tide. Point du Hoc with its bomb craters and bullet mrks on pill boxes. Also Vicksburg (I think it was) where the battle lines were SO close. And a small state park in the central California foothills near Jackson, called Indian Grinding Rock State Park and its small Chaw'se Regional Native American museum. It is not a loud dramatic place of one big event, but a beautiful place in the California foothills, with towering valley oaks, a rebuilt community roundhouse in a meadow and a creek. People have lived there for so, so long. Every fall there is still a gathering of those descended from the local native americans for a festival of harvesting acorns. It is an old place where American traditions have been happening for a long time.

LaurenKahn - Do you really feel it is necessary to put down what others are moved by? Gettysburg? Colonial Williamsburg?

I would not try to downplay the importance of any of the sites mentioned. I appreciate the importance of Independence Hall in the history of the beginning of our country, I walk the fields of our battlefields and think of the souls of all that died there, I wander through the marble halls of our DC government buildings thankful that I live in this country.

I disagree, though, that Colonial Williamsburg is nothing more than a tourist attraction. Yes, during the reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg many of the buildings had to be torn down and reconstructed because they were too badly damaged to survive much longer and some had to be rebuilt from scratch but 88 buildings are original. Many of the sites listed here are "just" fields or memorials to great men or single buildings.

In Colonial Williamsburg great men such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Patrick Henry walked the streets, participated in government here, and planned the fledgling government of our new country.

Congrats to your two kids for attending W&M. It is a good school. Between my DH and I, we have three degrees from there.

Vicksburg National Military Park, it is just amazing to see how close the opposing forces were fighting in that area. Ground Zero Fort McHenry

Seriously...when you are at Donner and look up at the mountains and what they faced...amazing.

And we complain about traffic jams that hold us up for 20-30 mins!

Having been raised and spent most of my adult life in California, the trace at Sutter's Mill where the gold was discovered that brought California in the US long before many of the other western states.

The battlefields at Antietam, Shiloh, and the Little Bighorn.

Ford's Theatre (and thinking about how the country might have changed had Lincoln lived to serve his second term).

The still existing Hempstead House in Now London, Connecticut which neighbored his family farm and for which we have documented evidence that my ninth generation great grandfather visited often. Unfortunately, the area where our family farm existed is now part of a rail road and industrial park.

The many locations in Sothern California which Jauquin Murietta and Ramona never visited, those famous folks not actually having existed.

"Seriously...when you are at Donner and look up at the mountains and what they faced...amazing."

So right - the whole experience of those who were crossing the country from St. Louis to California, walking most of the way & bringing their possessions covered wagons is difficult to imagine. If I remember correctly, the Donner party took what they thought was going to be a shorter route, but missed getting through the last pass in the Sierra Nevadas by a matter of days.

And to cross the Sierras there in the winter with the huge amounts of snowfall they get.

Great post, MRand.

Like many others here, I was moved and impressed by both Ellis Island and the Lincoln Memorial. Showing my nephew the place where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the memorial really was thrilling.

A few other places I've found impressive, illuminating, and/or moving:

1. Castillo San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida. Sir Francis Drake attacked it, Chief Osceola was imprisoned in it, and Fort Mose (the first free black settlement in the US) was part of its outer defenses.

2. Fort Clatsop near the Oregon coast. Lewis and Clark's expedition wintered here (the rainy weather made their stay a misery and long ago rotted the original fort away - what's there today is, gasp, a re-creation). To be here on a cold, rainy winter day is to appreciate all the more what they endured.

3. Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery. Stand upon the steps of the house, look across the Potomac at Washington DC and ponder the decisions Robert E. Lee made.

Both of my choices were listed by the OP.

The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach

Standing there, looking at the rows and rows of crosses and stars that never end . . . looking out over the beach itself. Wow. I don't have any ancestors that even fought in WWII but I was overwhelmed. I don't think I have felt as moved by any other place I've ever visited (although the Anne Frank house was pretty powerful).

USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu

I found it interesting, but not as moving . . . I couldn't believe it when I looked down and saw the oil that was *still* leaking after all these years. But then when I saw the bench with the names of the men who survived the attack but have chosen to have their ashes scattered with their fallen brethren . . . gah. It ended up being the highlight of my week on Oahu. I was so glad that our guide was someone who was actually there and shared his personal memories -- before long there won't be any of those men left, so I'm glad I got to meet him.

Oops - I should have said "relatives" not "ancestors" - that sounds ancient. I meant that I had no grandparents or great-grandparents that fought in WWII, so I didn't expect to be so impressed at the American Cemetery in Normandy. I think a great-uncle served maybe, but I don't think he was in Normandy.

I disagree with Birdie about Colonial Williamsburg, but agree about all the other sites--including some I have not seen. We can all feel differently about places but CW is just not really authentic. It is sort of a historical wonderland (in my opinion). The best part about CW are the theatrical performances in the evening, by the way, if you have the time to stay for them.

One site that hasn't been mentioned is where the transcontinental RR first touched at Promotory Point north of Ogden. They actually reenact the laying of the golden spike on each May 9th (The original was laid May 9, 1869, and then pulled out and replaced with a regular one). I haven't seen the reenactment but I did visit once when I had a home exchange in Salt Lake City over 10 years ago. It is very moving.

The Civil War made us a nation North and South and the railroad made us a nation East and West.

The memorials in D.C. are definitely some of the most impressive for me.
The Vietnam memorial is especially poignant because so many people with ties to those whose names are on the walls still visit.
We saw the Roosevelt memorial for the first time last fall and I found it very interesting--much less imposing than some of the others because of the design but successful in capturing many aspects of Roosevelt's life and contributions.

But probably the most impressive to me on the same recent trip was the Lincoln Memorial. We were there the weekend after the election, and as my son and I sat on the steps gazing out over the mall, I thought about Lincoln and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and our new president.

Don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but I find the Book Depository in Dallas Texas (now the Sixth Floor Museum) quite chilling.

"US history is full of contradictions--some very embarassing."

So does the rest of the world.

Fort Sumter . . . Andersonville . . . Appomatox.

Omaha Beach
World Trade Center
Arizona Memorial

yk...forgot all about the 6th Floor Museum. It was creepy good.

The Lincoln sites in Springfield, IL, most notably his tomb.

The Freedom Trail in Boston.

Monticello

The Hermitage, Nashville