40 Best Sights in USA

This memorial to those who perished during the Holocaust bears the names of surviving families who live in Oregon and southwest Washington. A bronzed baby shoe, a doll, broken spectacles, and other strewn possessions await notice on the cobbled courtyard. Soil and ash from six Nazi concentration camps is interred beneath the black granite wall. The memorial is operated by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Old Town.

Keeping watch over Butte is Our Lady of the Rockies, on the Continental Divide. The 90-foot-tall, 80-ton statue of the Virgin Mary is lighted at night. For a 2½-hour bus tour, stop by the visitor center, run by a nonprofit, nondenominational organization. Reservations are required, so call ahead. The gift shop is open year-round, while tours run during the non-snowy months.

The first thing you'll see in Provincetown is this grandiose edifice, somewhat out of proportion to the rest of the low-rise town. The monument commemorates the Pilgrims' first landing in the New World and their signing of the Mayflower Compact (the first Colonial rules of self-governance in what would become the United States) before they set off to explore the mainland. Climb the 116 steps and 60 short ramps of the 252-foot-high tower for a panoramic view—dunes on one side, harbor on the other, and the entire bayside of Cape Cod beyond. At the tower's base is a museum of Lower Cape and Provincetown history, with exhibits on whaling, shipwrecks, and scrimshaw. There are also arrowheads, tools, and images of the local Native American Wampanoag tribe, the town’s first fire engine, a re-creation of a 19th-century sea captain’s parlor, a diorama of the Mayflower Compact being signed, and more. Admission includes both the museum and monument.

On a median near the Castro's huge rainbow flag stands this memorial to the people forced by the Nazis to wear pink triangles. Fifteen triangular granite columns, one for every 1,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people estimated to have been killed during and after the Holocaust, stand in a grassy triangle—a reminder of the gay community's past and ongoing struggle for civil rights.

A field next to Prince Kuhio Condominiums honors the birthplace of Kauai's beloved Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole. Known for his kind nature and tireless work on behalf of the Hawaiian people, he lost his chance at the throne when Americans staged an illegal coup against Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 and toppled Hawaii's constitutional monarchy. He served as a delegate to the U.S. Congress for 19 years after Hawaii became a territory in 1900. An annual commemoration is held around his March birthday, a state holiday. This is a great place to watch wave riders surfing a popular break known as PKs, or to see the sun sink into the Pacific.

Dedicated by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in 1992, this quiet, contemplative space—an antidote to the relentless marketing of the merry-witches motif—honors those who died because they refused to confess that they were witches. A stone wall is studded with 20 stone benches, each inscribed with a victim's name, and sits next to Salem's oldest burying ground. Many people leave small tokens on the sites to commemorate the victims to this day. Six locust trees were planted to represent the injustice of the trials, as they are the last to bloom and the first to lose their leaves.

On the spit of land between Sachem Pond and Cow Cove, this monument lists the names of the original settlers of Block Island and marks the spot where they landed in 1661 (swimming to shore with their cows). A ½-mile hike from here over sandy terrain will get you to North Light.

Built between 1897 and 1912 with funds donated by foundry owner Richard Smith, this memorial to Pennsylvania heroes of the Civil War marks a major entrance to West Fairmout Park. Among those immortalized in bronze are Generals George Meade and Winfield Scott Hancock (both on horseback), and Smith himself.  At the base of each tower is a curved wall with a bench. If you sit at one end and listen to a person whispering at the other end, you learn why they're called the Whispering Benches. For information about the memorial's 14 statues and busts, see  associationforpublicart.org.

This memorial to John Lennon, who penned the classic 1967 song "Strawberry Fields Forever," is sometimes called the "international garden of peace." The curving paths, shrubs, trees, and flower beds create a deliberately informal landscape reminiscent of English parks. Every year on December 8, Beatles fans mark the anniversary of Lennon's death by gathering around the star-shape black-and-white "Imagine" mosaic set into the pavement. Lennon's 1980 murder took place across the street at The Dakota, which was home to Lennon and Yoko Ono and has been the residence of other celebrities from Boris Karloff to Leonard Bernstein. The building's elaborate exterior is best admired from Central Park West, as visitors are not welcome in the lobby, and there are no tours.

Combat artist Austin Deuel created Hill-881 South, the sculpture in front of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts that graces Veterans Memorial Plaza, dedicated to the memory of those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. The plaza was dedicated in 1986.