10457 Best Sights in USA

Occupying a section of land originally granted in 1705 by Queen Anne of England, Trinity Church is considered one of the first and finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in America. This Episcopal church (the third on this site) was consecrated in 1846 and remained the city's tallest structure until 1890. Among its notable features are its three sets of enormous bronze doors depicting religious and early New York history, as well as some of the earliest examples of American-made stained glass. The churchyard contains the city’s oldest carved gravestone (Richard Churcher, 1681); on its south side, Alexander Hamilton is buried under a marble pyramid, not far from a monument commemorating steamboat inventor Robert Fulton (buried in the Livingston family vault with his wife). Trinity Church recently underwent a major \"rejuvenation\" project, restoring its historic architecture and adding a new section of stained-glass windows. Episcopalian worship services are held in person on Sunday and online during the week.

George Washington once sat in the distinguished visitor pew close to this church's distinctive three-tier wineglass pulpit. Completed in 1726, this structure is similar to Boston's Old North Church; both were inspired by the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. Trinity's 1733 London-made organ is believed to be the first big pipe organ brought to the 13 colonies. Among those interred in the churchyard's historic cemetery is French admiral d'Arsac de Ternay, commander of the allied French Navy in Newport, who was buried with special permission in 1780 as there were then no Roman Catholic cemeteries in New England.

West of Brackenridge Park, this nationally recognized private institution of higher education is known for its lush campus dotted with redbrick buildings and sparkling fountains, along with sweeping views of downtown. Trinity's curriculum is rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, with more than 110 majors and minors, more than 115 clubs and organizations, and 18 varsity athletic teams. If the timing is right, attend a show at the Ruth Taylor Theater (Stieran Theater) or attend the Distinguished Lecture Series at Laurie Auditorium.

A craft brewery with a social mission, Triple Bottom strives to be a positive community partner. They pour lagers, pale ales, IPAs, and seasonal and special releases. Happy hour is offered Wednesday through Friday and Sunday, 3--6 pm, and there are trivia nights and drag shows.

At 9.5 miles one-way, the Triple Lakes Trail is the longest trail in the park. It starts at the Denali Visitor Center and runs south, crossing a pair of creeks and offering vistas at a trio of lakes. The trail is a mixture of gravel, roots, dirt, and rocks that features a relatively steep 20% grade in some sections. Plan on it taking about five hours one way before you reach the other trailhead on Highway 3, about 7 miles south of the park entrance. Difficult.

Kids will love the playgrounds at Trolley Barn Park, just around the corner on Adams Avenue. The park is also home to free family concerts in the summer.

The museum stands on the site of the eastern terminal of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, which ran from Kingston through the Catskills and was affectionately known as the Up & Down Railroad. Trolley cars dating from 1907 are on display; trolley tours of historic Kingston leave from the museum.

Fantastic-looking formations of calcium carbonate, known as tufa, were formed underwater along fault lines in the bed of what is now Searles Dry Lake. Some of the more than 500 spires stand as tall as 140 feet, creating a landscape so surreal that it doubled for outer-space terrain in the film Star Trek V. The Pinnacles also served as the backdrop in Planet of the Apes, Battlestar Galactica, and music videos by Rihanna and Lady Gaga. An easy-to-walk ½-mile trail allows you to see the tufa up close, but wear sturdy shoes—tufa cuts like coral. It's located 45 minutes east of Ridgecrest, and the best road to the area can be impassable after a rainstorm.

Managed by the nonprofit Tropical Everglades Visitor Association, this pastel-pink information center with teal signage offers abundant printed material, plus tips from volunteer experts on exploring South Florida, especially Homestead, Florida City, and the Florida Keys.

Diversity is the name of the game at this family-owned winery on prime acreage amid the Carneros District's rolling hills. High-profile Napa Valley wineries purchase most of the grapes grown here, but some are held back for estate-only wines—the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs the region is known for, along with Roussanne, Zinfandel, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a few others. You must call ahead to taste, but a casual experience tailored to your interests awaits if you do. The included tour takes in the vineyards and the wine cave.

While in Independence, you can visit the nearby Truman Home, Truman's Summer White House.

Regarded as one of the top mountain biking trail systems in the eastern United States, the four loop trails at Tsali offer ride opportunities from 4 to 14 miles. There's a campground and restrooms. Bike rentals are available from Tsali Cycles in Bryson City ( www.tsalicycles.com).

The octagonal store, founded in the early 1870s, sells groceries and authentic, reasonably priced Navajo rugs, pottery, baskets, and jewelry—it's adjacent to the NavajoLand Hotel and Explore Navajo Interactive Museum.

There's an archaeological display of portions of the original 1752 fort at this museum, as well as artifacts and detailed exhibits on the history of the early colony. The park includes picnic areas, gardens, an adobe rowhouse built in 1897, and Tubac's well-preserved 1885 schoolhouse. The Tubac Visitor Center is also housed here.

This museum honors Harriet Tubman, the former slave who led more than 300 people to freedom as one of the conductors of the Underground Railroad. The museum's signature piece is a large mural depicting several centuries of black culture. Permanent galleries are focused on African American inventors, Middle Georgia history, and folk art. Rotating exhibits showcase African American arts and culture.

Originally owned by the Randolph family, Tuckahoe is 7 miles west of Richmond, on the James River. Thomas Jefferson spent his boyhood years here, from 1745 until 1752. In fact, he began his studies in the one-room schoolhouse that still stands on the beautifully landscaped grounds, which are open daily for self-guided tours. Guided tours of the house are by appointment only, except during the special Christmas tour in December.

In addition to intricate cave formations, the 1.25-mile tour of this subterranean world includes 210-foot Silver Falls, the tallest underground waterfall in the eastern United States. The well-lit caverns, including a massive one measuring more than 100 feet, are home to a seismic station used to detect earthquakes and rocket launches all over the world.

Five acres of gardens are home to a variety of experiences: a tropical greenhouse; a sensory garden, where you can touch and smell the plants and listen to the abundant bird life; historical gardens that display the Mediterranean landscaping the property's original owners planted in the 1930s; a garden designed to attract birds; and a cactus garden. Other gardens showcase wildflowers, Australian plants, and Native American crops and herbs. From October through May, interact with butterflies from all over the world in their own greenhouse. A delightful café is open for breakfast and lunch daily. All paths are wheelchair accessible.

The museum consists of a modern building housing superb collections of Latin American Art and Western Art, and five adjacent historic buildings on Main Avenue that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. You can tour four of the historic houses, La Casa Cordova, the Stevens Home, the J. Knox Corbett House, and the Edward Nye Fish House, though each have different hours. The fifth, the Romero House, believed to incorporate a section of the presidio wall, is now used for the museum's ceramics education program. Visitors enter through the main museum on Alameda Street. The Latin American Art wing includes ancient Andean and Incan sculpture, Spanish Colonial art, and contemporary Latin works. The Art of the American West collection showcases Western and indigenous Southwestern art; rotating exhibits include Asian, European, and Modern pieces from the permanent collection.

La Casa Cordova, one of the oldest buildings in Tucson and one of the best local examples of a Sonoran row house has a Spanish-style design adapted to adobe construction. The oldest section of La Casa Cordova, constructed around 1848, is only open November to January to display El Nacimiento, the largest nativity scene in the Southwest.

The Stevens Home was where the wealthy politician and cattle rancher Hiram Stevens and his wife, Petra Santa Cruz, entertained many of Tucson's leaders during the 1800s. A drought brought the Stevens's cattle ranching to a halt in 1893, and Stevens killed himself in despair after unsuccessfully attempting to shoot his wife (the bullet was deflected by the comb she wore in her hair). The 1865 house was restored in 1980 and now houses Café à la C'Art, a delightful restaurant.

The J. Knox Corbett House was built in 1906–07 and occupied by members of the Corbett family until 1963. J. Knox Corbett was a successful businessman, postmaster, and mayor of Tucson, and his wife, Elizabeth Hughes Corbett, an accomplished musician and daughter of Tucson pioneer Sam Hughes. The two-story, Mission Revival–style residence has been furnished with Arts and Crafts pieces. It's open only on weekends.

The Edward Nye Fish House, an 1868 adobe that belonged to an early merchant, entrepreneur, and politician and his wife, is notable for its 15-foot beamed ceilings and saguaro cactus–rib supports.

Admission to the museum and all four homes is free on the second Sunday and the first Thursday evening of every month, and there are free docent tours daily.

In 1925, prominent real-estate developer Fred F. French was among the first Americans ever to buy up a large number of buildings—most of them tenements—and join the properties into a single, massive new complex. He designed a collection of nine apartment buildings and two parks in the \"garden city\" mode, which placed a building's green space not in an enclosed courtyard, but in the foreground. French also built a 39-by-50-foot \"Tudor City\" sign atop one of the 22-story buildings, best viewed from the eastern end of 42nd Street. The development's residential towers opened between 1927 and 1930, borrowing a marketable air of sophistication from Tudor-style stonework, stained-glass windows, and lobby-design flourishes. Tudor City has been featured in numerous films, and its landmark gardens—sometimes compared to Gramercy Park, only public—remain a popular lunch spot among office workers. The neighborhood, which is near the United Nations, was designated a historic district in 1988.

Stop at Q Street between 31st and 32nd Streets, and look through the trees to the north, to the top of a sloping lawn, to see the neoclassical Tudor Place, designed by Capitol architect Dr. William Thornton for one of Martha Washington's granddaughters. Completed in 1816, the house remained in the family for six generations, hosting countless politicians, dignitaries, and military leaders. On the house tour, you can see the most extensive collection of George and Martha Washington items on public display outside Mount Vernon, Francis Scott Key's law desk, and spurs belonging to soldiers executed for serving as spies during the Civil War. You can only visit the house by guided tour (given hourly; the last tour at 3 pm), but before and afterward, until 4 pm, you can wander freely with a map through the formal garden full of roses and boxwoods, many of which are more than a century old. Admission to the garden grounds is free, but reserved tickets are required.

Next to Loyola on St. Charles Avenue, Tulane University's three original buildings face the avenue: Tilton Hall (1902) on the right, Gibson Hall (1894) in the middle, and Dinwiddie Hall (1923) on the left. The Romanesque style, with its massive stone composition and arches, is repeated in several buildings around the quad. More modern campus buildings extend another three blocks to the north, including Newcomb Art Museum, a 3,600-square-foot exhibition facility offering contemporary and historical exhibits (free; closed Sunday). Tulane offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees in liberal arts, science and engineering, architecture, business, law, social work, medicine, public health, and tropical medicine.

The Middle American Research Institute and Gallery ( 504/865–5110  mari.tulane.edu), located on the third floor of Tulane's Dinwiddie Hall, includes the world's largest documented Guatemalan textile collection and replicas of classic Mayan sculpture. Established in 1924, the institute's collection also includes rare artifacts like poison-dart arrows from Venezuela and shrunken heads from the Brazilian rain forest. On view at the gallery is "Faces of the Maya." The pre-Columbian artifacts are complemented by a collection of books on Latin American culture housed in Tulane's main library ( free  closed Sat. and Sun., appointment recommended).

Encompassing mission ruins, the church of San José de Tumacácori, and a portion of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, this park became a national monument in 1908. Guided tours of the beautiful church and grounds are available daily at 11 and 2, January through March, and information on both the mission and the historic trail is available at the visitor center. A small museum displays some of the mission's artifacts, and often during winter and spring months fresh tortillas are made on a wood-fire stove in the courtyard. Creative educational programs, such as full-moon tours, bird walks, and a Junior Ranger Program, are offered throughout the year. An annual fiesta the first weekend of December has arts and crafts and food booths.

This 275-foot tree fell in 1937, and soon a 17-foot-wide, 8-foot-high hole was cut through it for vehicular passage (not to mention the irresistible photograph) that continues today. Large vehicles take the nearby bypass.

This glowing optical illusion painted on the wall of the Federal Land Bank Building in 1976 by local artist Blue Sky gives the appearance of a tunnel leading to the mountains. To celebrate the mural's 25th anniversary in 2001, the city hired Blue Sky to create another work in the same parking lot: the world's largest fire hydrant towers 40 feet here.

Nothing has changed much at the Tunstall Store Museum since the days of the Old West. When the state of New Mexico purchased the store in 1957, boxes of stock dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were discovered here, still unused. The clothes, hardware, butter churns, kerosene lamps, and other items are displayed in the store's original cases.

Lancaster County--based Turkey Hill Dairy, best known for its ice cream, created this interactive extravaganza where kids can milk a mechanical cow, climb aboard a vintage milk delivery truck, and shoot a Turkey Hill commercial. In the Taste Lab you can concoct your own flavor and taste-test it; outside the lab, you can have unlimited samples of the company's flavors. Grown-ups may enjoy the displays on dairy farming and the family-owned company, but mostly this one is for the kids. Reservations are recommended for the Experience, and required for the Taste Lab.