# Americans Have Statue of Liberty; The English Have White Cliffs of Dover; What Else? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 21, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334 "2009-01-21T18:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/41 "2009-01-23T16:55:04Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’m mostly talking about visual shorthand that, say, a cinematograhper in a movie would use to quickly establish that “this is the country where this action takes place.” For example, if Bond was in Singapore, an establishing shot might show the Merlion. If he was in Italy, an establishing shot might show St. Mark’s Cathedral. I think that sort of thing really only works for cities; an establishing shot of St. Mark’s Cathedral isn’t going to do you much good if the action is in Florence. (Not to hear the producers of _Taking Lives_ – which established that the action was set in Montreal using a shot of the [Château Frontenac](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_Frontenac) :rolleyes: – tell it.) To the extent that the others work (leaving aside cases like Singapore), it’s because they indicate cities in which shows set in that country are almost always set – e.g. the Tower Bridge does duty for Britain because [Britain Is Only London](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BritainIsOnlyLondon). Actually, now that I think about it, the Mounties are really the only one of these symbols that actually are nationwide. Of course, they don’t really wear the dress uniforms except on special occasions; the rest of the time they wear regular cop outfits. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/42 "2009-01-23T17:58:52Z")
I guess this is pointless since the OP has already responed to clarify, but…I’d assumed he meant the first obvious sign that he is home. For instance, whenever you emigrate to the USA, there is the Statue. Whenever you swim the English Channel, there are the White Cliffs. You shouldn’t need to travel a thousand miles inland to know you’re home. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/43 "2009-01-26T19:13:32Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > I guess this is pointless since the OP has already responed to clarify, but…I’d assumed he meant the first obvious sign that he is home. For instance, whenever you emigrate to the USA, there is the Statue. Whenever you swim the English Channel, there are the White Cliffs. You shouldn’t need to travel a thousand miles inland to know you’re home. We don’t need to swim the Channel anymore, because we have built a tunnel. So there are vast numbers of returning Englishmen whose first sight of their country is … **the railway station at Folkestone** ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/44 "2009-01-26T19:27:17Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Coming into land at Belfast City Airport, you’ll see the cranes at Harland and Wolff to your port side. They’re not that famous are they? For Belfast, I would imagine political murals would be more ready identifiers or for NI the Giant’s Causeway. Ireland (as a whole) is a tricky one. The Ha’Penny Bridge (in Dublin) is used a bit as an establishing shot in British shows but I’m not really sure how famous it is further afield. A generic Irish pub might fit the bill better or a spud-headed old man in a cap leading a donkey and cart down a boithrín with dry stone walls? Actually reading the OP I’m not entirely clear what is being looked for. Is it literally the thing that would make you realise you were at home, or the filmic/tv shorthand? ---
**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/45 "2009-01-26T19:29:12Z")
For Switzerland, the [Matterhorn](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matterhorn-EastAndNorthside-viewedFromZermatt_landscapeformat.jpg) is probably the most recognized mountain peak. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/46 "2009-01-26T20:39:25Z")
For Pakistan it should be [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minar-e-Pakistan) Unfortunatly in todays political climate it would be [this](http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set3/taliban%20fighters.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/47 "2009-01-26T21:00:59Z")
For Holland, when I enter it by road, I get the feeling I’m coming home when I see the first road signs in Dutch. When I fly in, it’s the [pattern of long narrow meadows and linear straight canals](http://www.bovenkerkerpoldernatuurlijk.nl/foto/luchtfoto-uitsnede.jpg) that says “home” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/48 "2009-01-26T23:24:31Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Indeed. If I saw that out of my plane window instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, “I’m home” would be the last thing I would say. I saw a documentary about the P.O.W.s who were held during the Vietnam War. It ended with the details of their release and return to the U.S. An Air Force cargo plane landed in Hanoi and brought them to an air base in the Philippines. After some time at the base hospital, they were flown to a base in California. One of them said in an interview how the pilot came in low over the Golden Gate Bridge so they could see that they were home. We got symbols on both coasts. Depends where you’re coming from. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334/49 "2009-01-27T00:09:34Z")
When I was a small child my parents used to vacation all over Northern California. (We lived in SF.) Everytime we came home, we’d either go over the GG bridge or see it across the bay. (We could see the top from near the house. I still get teary eyed forty years later at the sight of the art deco bridge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-have-statue-of-liberty-the-english-have-white-cliffs-of-dover-what-else/482334.md?page=2)