189 Best Sights in USA

One of the most noteworthy structures in Alexandria, this striking Greek Revival edifice at the corner of Prince and Lee streets stands out from its many redbrick Federal neighbors. Built in 1852 as a bank, and later used as a Union commissary headquarters, then as a storage facility for the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary, the Athenaeum now houses the gallery of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, which hosts free rotating art exhibitions, classes, and receptions throughout the year. The 200 block of Prince Street between Fairfax and Lee streets is known as Gentry Row.

The tall limestone pillars of Belle Meade are markers of a bygone era. Today, this historic mansion is a museum at the center of 30 acres of smooth green pastures west of Nashville. In addition to the Greek Revival–style mansion, the property includes a winery and more than 10 outbuildings. General tours are available, or you can take a themed tour like The Journey to Jubilee, which tells the stories of the people who were enslaved at Belle Meade Plantation. A complimentary wine tasting is offered at the end of your tour, or you can book a private tasting separately.

In honor of the soda's 100th anniversary in 1998, the local bottling company opened the Birthplace in the same corner store where teacher-turned-pharmacist Caleb Bradham brewed his first batch of "Brad's Drink." He later renamed it Pepsi-Cola, marketing the syrup to other soda fountains, and a conglomerate was born. This old-fashioned shop feels like a museum, with its reproduction of Bradham's fountain and exhibits of memorabilia, including the original recipe that included coriander, nutmeg, and a half gallon of alcohol. Enjoy an ice-cold bottle of Pepsi while roaming the gift shop, full of Pepsi history and souvenirs ranging from T-shirts to thimbles.

Three of the Victorian brownstones on a stretch of 3rd Street near Locust Street, often called Bouvier's Row, were once owned by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's ancestors. Michel Bouvier, her great-great-grandfather—the first of the family to come from France—and many of his descendants lie in the family vault at Old St. Mary's Church, a few blocks away on 4th Street. These are private residences and can be viewed from the outside only.

A short street running north–south, Brewery Gulch is adjacent to the Copper Queen Hotel. In the old days the brewery housed here allowed the dregs of the beer that was being brewed to flow down the street and into the gutter. Nowadays this narrow road is home to Bisbee's nightlife.

About 10 miles north of Southport, you can explore the ruins and excavations of a colonial town and see the Civil War earthworks of Fort Anderson. The visitor center has a video presentation and a museum of historical items found at the site. Living-history events with costumed interpreters range from Civil War reenactments to colonial-era cooking demonstrations. It's also a great spot for a picnic.

While waiting for the arrival of the British on the morning of April 19, 1775, the minutemen gathered at this 1690 tavern. A half-hour self-guided tour takes in the tavern's seven rooms, which have been restored to the way they looked in the 1770s. Among the items on display is an old front door with a hole made by a British musket ball.

This antebellum home was converted to a field hospital after the Battle of Franklin in 1864. Today, the property offers several different tours, including a 90-minute Behind the Scenes Tour of the house and the 90-minute Slavery & the Enslaved Tour focusing on the individuals enslaved at Carnton and how emancipation changed their lives; check the online schedule before visiting. Be sure to explore the grounds after your visit. In addition to the house, there are gardens, several outbuildings, and a Civil War cemetery. Combination tickets are available with Carter House and Rippa Villa.

This handsome, patterned red-and-black brick building dating from 1770 was the headquarters of the Carpenters' Company, a guild founded to support carpenters, who were both builders and architects in this era, and to aid their families. In September 1774 the First Continental Congress convened here and addressed a declaration of rights and grievances to King George III. The year 2024 marked the 300th anniversary of the Carpenters' Company and the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress. The Carpenters' Company still owns and operates the building. Today re-creations of Colonial settings include original Windsor chairs and candle sconces and displays of 18th-century carpentry tools.

This restored lifesaving station is now a museum that tells the story of the brave people who manned 29 stations that once lined the Outer Banks. These were the precursors to today's Coast Guard, with staff who rescued people and animals from seacraft in distress. Eight incredibly well-preserved buildings (given the frequency of hurricanes here) on 7 acres include a cookhouse, bathhouse, stables, workshop, and the original 1874 lifesaving station. You'll see original equipment and tools, artifacts, and exhibits. A 1907 cottage moved to the site portrays 19th- and early-20th-century life along the Outer Banks. Just across the street, there's a pirate-themed playground for once children tire of all the history. "Chicamacomico" is an Algonquin word meaning "land of shifting sands."

Finders keepers is the name of the game at the Gold Camp, where you can pan for gold and tour a historic dredge. The Pedro Dredge scooped up 55,000 ounces of gold from Chicken Creek between 1959 and 1967, but apparently plenty was left behind in the creek and elsewhere. Guests can stay in the Gold Camp's cabins, campground, or RV park, and schedule a prospecting trip to the site's mining claims. Hungry gold seekers can fill up in the café on wood-fired pizzas (offered a couple nights a week), sandwiches, and baked goods, or fuel up with an espresso or beer.

William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition climbed to the top of this limestone bluff in 1805 and took three compass readings. The maps he made from these readings became an important resource for future travelers. A ¼-mile gravel loop trail takes visitors to the top of the bluff, where interpretive signs include a replica of Clark's sketched map of the area.

The town of Dorchester boomed during the 18th century before being abandoned at the onset of the Revolutionary War. All that remains of this once-substantial trading hub are the oyster tabby walls of Fort Dorchester and the brick belltower of St. George's Anglican Church. The Ashley River runs through the woods, and trails offer peaceful places to sit and watch the blackwater river flow by.

As you walk the gently sloping, waterfront meadow where Colonial Pemaquid was established by English colonists around 1620 (the same time as the Pilgrims were stepping ashore on Plymouth Rock), be sure to read signs describing the buildings that once stood here. Evidence that's been unearthed suggests there were some 40 structures—including houses, a forge, a tavern, a jail, and a customs house—set along a grid of dirt lanes. A replica of a fisherman's small cottage gives an idea of how the settlers lived. Nearby is a 1908 reproduction of a large stone tower, part of Fort William Henry, built in 1692 to protect the little community. Unfortunately, unlike Plymouth, Pemaquid was abandoned in the early 1700s. A small museum containing a diorama of the village and some 75,000 artifacts is open seasonally.

Congress Hall was the meeting place of the U.S. Congress from 1790 to 1800, one of the most important decades in our nation's history. Here the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution; Alexander Hamilton's proposals for a mint and a national bank were enacted; and Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee became the first new states after the original colonies. On the first floor you can find the House of Representatives, where President John Adams was inaugurated in 1797. On the second floor is the Senate chamber, where in 1793 George Washington was inaugurated for his second term. Both chambers have been authentically restored.

Driven by unrequited love, Latvian immigrant Ed Leedskalnin (1887–1951) fashioned this attraction along Dixie Highway in the early 1900s out of massive slabs of coral rock, a feat he likened to building the pyramids. You can learn how he populated this fantasy world on his property with an imaginary wife and three children, studied astronomy, and created a simple home and elaborate courtyard without formal engineering education and with mostly handmade tools. Highlights of this National Register of Historic Places site, originally named Rock Gate, include a working sundial, a banquet table shaped like Florida, and other quirky coral sculptures. Fun fact: Billy Idol wrote, recorded, and shot the video for his song “Sweet Sixteen” on the grounds of Coral Castle as a tribute to Ed. Candidly, among locals, it's known as a tourist trap.

Those driving to Coronado National Memorial, dedicated to Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, will see many of the same stunning vistas of Arizona and Mexico the conquistador saw when he trod this route in 1540 seeking the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola. Hikers come here for both the excellent views and the opportunity to walk the 1-mile Yaqui Trail, the southernmost leg of the 800-mile Arizona Trail, that ends at the Mexico border. The views are excellent atop the nearly 7,000-foot Coronado Peak; to get there you drive (or walk) a little more than 3 miles up a dirt road from the visitor center to Montezuma Pass Overlook, and then go another ½ mile on foot only. There's also Crest Trail, a difficult but rewarding 12-mile round trip to Miller Peak, the highest point in the Huachuca Mountains (9,466 feet).

Kids ages 5 to 12 can participate in the memorial's Junior Ranger program, explore Coronado Cave, and dress up in replica Spanish armor.

The turnoff for the monument is 16 miles south of Sierra Vista on AZ 92; the visitor center is 5 miles farther.

This fascinating stop on the 0.6-mile round-trip Cave Spring Trail is an authentic example of cowboy life more than a century ago. You do not need to complete the entire trail (which includes two short ladders and some rocky hiking) to see the 19th-century artifacts at Cowboy Camp.

The home of the first forestry school in the United States is on 6,500 acres in the Pisgah National Forest. Started in 1898 by Carl Schenck, who came here to work for the Biltmore Estate, the school trained some 300 foresters. Today you can visit the school's original log buildings, a restored 1915 steam locomotive, 3 miles of interpretive trails, and a visitor center with many hands-on exhibits. It sits on a scenic byway that connects with the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mt. Pisgah.

Moved to the Atlanta History Center from a building in Grant Park (named for a New England–born Confederate colonel, not the U.S. president), the 49-foot-tall circular painting depicts the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, during which 90% of the city was destroyed. A team of expert European panorama artists completed the painting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1887; it was donated to the city of Atlanta in 1898. A brief overview is followed by a 12-minute film, then visitors can get a closer look at the foreground figures on the ground level of the exhibit and learn more about landmarks and how the 10,000-pound scene was created through displays and interactive touchscreens.

Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved servant Robert Hemings lived and worked in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. Jefferson rented rooms on the second floor of the home of bricklayer Jacob Graff, where he drafted the Declaration of Independence; Hemings likely lived in the attic. The home was reconstructed for the Bicentennial celebration; the bedroom and parlor in which Jefferson lived that summer were re-created with period furnishings. The first floor has a Jefferson exhibition. The display on the Declaration of Independence shows some of the changes Jefferson made while writing it. You can see Jefferson's original version—which would have abolished slavery had the passage not been stricken by the committee that included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

Between the Lodge at Mammoth Cave and the Caver's Camp Store, Engine No. 4 is one of the original "donkey engines" of the Mammoth Cave Railroad that brought travelers to Mammoth Cave before the turn of the 20th century. It rests here restored, along with one of its passenger cars.

Tiny, but well worth the 15 minutes you'll spend here if you're already in the neighborhood, this operating theater is open to the public because of its historical significance. In fact, it served as Mass General Hospital's first operating room, in use from 1821 to 1867, and it was here where the world witnessed the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia, in 1846. Today, the room contains two 19th-century operating chairs complete with red velvet to mask patients' blood, early surgical tools, a teaching skeleton, and, interestingly, an authentic Egyptian mummy.

It's a museum now, but this Federal Hall is monumental as the "birthplace of American Government." George Washington was sworn in here as the first president of the United States, in 1789—you can even view the bible Washington used to swear his oath (on the first floor). The museum covers 400 years of New York City's history, with a focus on the life and times of what is now the city's Financial District. You can spot the building easily—it was modeled on the Parthenon, and a 12½-foot-tall statue of George Washington stands proudly on its (south-facing) stately steps.

Historians aren't sure how Mormons came to control Fort Bridger trading post. They may have purchased Fort Bridger from Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez or forced the original owners to leave. As the U.S. Army approached during a conflict known as the Mormon War of 1857, the Mormons deserted the area and burned the original Bridger post. Fort Bridger was rebuilt and then served as a frontier military post until it was abandoned in 1890, and many of the military-era buildings remain. You can attend interpretive programs and living-history demonstrations during the summer, and the museum has exhibits about the fort's history. The largest mountain-man rendezvous in the intermountain West occurs annually at Fort Bridger over Labor Day weekend, attracting hundreds of buckskinners and Native Americans, plus thousands of visitors. The grounds are open daily, and the historic buildings are open in the warmer months.

Experience colonial life at this former French outpost, where Mobile was born. Today, the city's French origins endure in its Creole cuisine and at this historic site. Roughly 150 years after the fort was destroyed, its remains were discovered during construction of the Interstate 10 interchange. A rebuilt portion houses the city's visitor center as well as a museum. Costumed guides conduct tours.

Established in 1846 as the last Hudson Bay Company trading post built in the United States, Fort Connah was used by traders until 1871, mostly for exchanging and acquiring furs, bison meat, pemmican (a mixture of tallow and dried meat usually made from bison, deer, elk, or moose), and bison skin saddle blankets. Of the original three buildings, one remains today; it's believed to be the oldest building still standing in Montana. You can't go inside, but a historical marker details events and inhabitants.

Next to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge is Fort Knox, Maine's largest historic fort. It was built of granite on the west bank of the Penobscot River between 1844 and 1869 when, despite a treaty with Britain settling boundary disputes, invasion was still a concern—after all, the British controlled this region during both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The fort never saw any real action, but it was used for troop training and as a garrison during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Ghost hunters have reported a range of paranormal activities here. Visitors are welcome to explore the many rooms and passageways. Guided tours are given between 11 and 3 when volunteers are available.

The history of this Civil War–era fort is told through videos in the visitor center and panels along outdoor pathways. Veterans events take place throughout the year, and there’s a gift shop and great views of the Nashville skyline. Revitalization plans for the park include adding 1½ to 2 miles of trails and additional interpretations to highlight African-American history from the Civil War to the civil rights era. Sheep are sometimes used for natural landscaping, watched over by a so-called livestock guardian dog. Be advised: you may also come across a deer on the grounds.