# Non-Americans, what are our iconic landmarks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 6, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231 "2014-06-06T22:33:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/61 "2014-06-11T15:09:12Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > All of these are fine. But really, the Statue of Liberty is the only answer here. Nothing else comes even remotely close as a symbolic icon of the US. the SoL says “New York” to me _much_ more than it says “America”. Things that say primarily “America” to me are: The White House Grand Canyon Mt Rushmore Redwoods Yellowstone & Yosemite Mississippi Paddleboats ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/62 "2014-06-11T15:41:32Z")
> [@Geek\_Mecha](#): > > [This](http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/economic/images/diamond-head02.jpg) is Diamond Head. It tends to look like [this](http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/36/3693/753AF00Z/posters/diamond-head-hawaii.jpg) in posters. It’s on Oahu, east of Waikiki. [Na Pali](https://www.google.com/search?q=na+pali&num=30&safe=off&client=ubuntu&hs=kiR&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=g3iYU9GgD4-u7Abi2YHgBg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1366&bih=563) coast are more “Hawaii” to me than some hotels. Then again, they also scream “King Kong” and “Jurassic Park” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/63 "2014-06-11T18:25:23Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > The Golden Gaye of San Francisco Freudian slip? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/64 "2014-06-11T22:51:13Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Thank you, and correct, absolutely no insult intended. > > I also take on board the fact that that “Yank” is not something that a large number of people in the USA would consider themselves to be, but in the spirit of not allowing people to choose their own nick name or what other people refer to them as, I choose to ignore that. 😉 “Yank” and “Yankee” are weird words. We - that is to say, members of the tribe itself - have never frequently used “Yank” as a nickname, save for a World War II magazine for service men. (I believe it also printed pin-up photos as well, so maybe the name seemed appropriate.) But it is one of the oldest nicknames for an American, along with “Brother Jonathan”. “Yankee”, though, always seems to be applied to someone else. There’s a saying that in the world, a Yankee is an American. In America, a Yankee is a Northerner. In the North, a Yankee is a New Englander. And in New England, a Yankee is a New Englander whose family has lived in their town for four generations. Certainly here in the South, “Yankee” is mildly disparaging. Other than that, a Yankee is a member of New York’s American League baseball team. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/65 "2014-06-11T22:55:16Z")
I should say, a _hated_ member of New York’s _thrice-damned_ baseball team… ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/66 "2014-06-12T02:32:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > … you’re very strange. > > More than a million people visit Les Invalides every year, mostly to see Napoleon’s tomb. If one million a year visit the little creep’s tomb — suspended like Mohammed’s betwixt heaven and earth — ( Chateaubriand, his _frenmeny_ considered it would have been more romantic to leave him where he died, in the Atlantic, but Chateaubriand, like others in that era, including Napoleon, too consciously romantic to be authentically romantic, was prolly just striking a pose ) whereas six million a year visit the Lincoln thing, I would suggest the latter wins. Not that most of us want to compete in that contest. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/67 "2014-06-12T02:42:36Z")
Just in case someone doesn’t already know: Lincoln in entombed in Springfield, Illinois. The Lincoln Memorial is just that, a memorial. I don’t know how many visitors the tomb gets, but it’s certainly far fewer than the memorial. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/68 "2014-06-12T03:03:58Z")
**[Indeed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Tomb)**, I had looked that up before the first post, as I hadn’t known the difference. A fine imperial affair, not unlike that of several asiatic dictators, such as **[Sun Yat-sen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen_Mausoleum)** or his beloved brother-in-law and successor to the Republic, **[Chiang Kai-shek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cihu_Mausoleum)**. Like Lincoln, Chiang has not only that as a resting place — until the Chinas are reconciled, but _don’tholdyourbreath_ — but a separate **[Memorial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek_Memorial_Hall)**. Also in the same grandiose vein as the various mausoleums herein mentioned. I could have said mausolea, but obscurity is only sometimes a virtue. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/69 "2014-06-12T16:47:15Z")
How much of an icon is [Portland Head Light](http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/16/06/7a/portland-head-light.jpg) outside of Maine? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/70 "2014-06-12T16:55:45Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > How much of an icon is [Portland Head Light](http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/16/06/7a/portland-head-light.jpg) outside of Maine? I don’t think Thomas Kinkaide is very popular outside the US. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/71 "2014-06-12T17:24:09Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > “Yankee”, though, always seems to be applied to someone else. There’s a saying that in the world, a Yankee is an American. In America, a Yankee is a Northerner. In the North, a Yankee is a New Englander. And in New England, a Yankee is a New Englander whose family has lived in their town for four generations. The original quip by E.B. White is… To foreigners, a Yankee is an American. To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner. To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner. To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander. To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter. And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/72 "2014-06-12T17:37:42Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast. Vermont seems like a lovely place to live. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/73 "2014-06-12T17:58:21Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Interesting point how some non-Americans view Hawaii as a place other than “The USA”. > > There’s an analogy, I think, from my American perspective. I know, intellectually, that [French Guiana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana) is 100% France under French law. It’s not an external territory, it _is France_. From a practical, cultural perspective, French Guiana isn’t France to me - it’s a tropical, jungle/rain forest country that might happen to have French as an official language. If someone went to French Guiana and came back and said they had “been to France”, I would assume they had been to Europe. It’s funny how some **Americans** view Hawaii as a place other than “The USA”. I’ve only ever been in Hawaii for 10 days, but it still amazed me how many mainlanders would say something like “When we get back to America…” :smack: I agree that the Statue of Liberty is our most iconic landmark. That said, at my last job we had a steady stream of contractors coming over from India. They would stay a few months and then leave to be replaced by another Indian contractor. Usually within the first two weekends (if the weather was nice) all the newbies would take a road trip together to see Niagara Falls. Just a bunch of guys all heading off together to Niagara together. 😕 I never figured out what that was all about. Since they all had work visas, they had to stay in the U.S., on the New York side. I figure if I ever make it to New York, there are about 50 other things I’d rather see than the Falls. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/74 "2014-06-12T18:20:59Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Freudian slip? The kind that your mother used to wear. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/75 "2014-06-12T19:23:12Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > [Gun Shows](http://www.gunshows-usa.com/). They don’t exist anywhere else. [http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/03/24/iwa-show-2013/](http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/03/24/iwa-show-2013/) https://www.youtube.com/embed/pX_7g0j-68U?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque [http://10times.com/penrith-gun-show](http://10times.com/penrith-gun-show) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/76 "2014-06-12T20:24:16Z")
> [@Shadowfyre](#): > > It’s funny how some **Americans** view Hawaii as a place other than “The USA”. I’ve only ever been in Hawaii for 10 days, but it still amazed me how many mainlanders would say something like “When we get back to America…” :smack: You should see how many Americans don’t know that New Mexico is part of the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/77 "2014-06-14T17:20:42Z")
I asked Mrs Iggy, a Colombian, the one thing she wants to visit that signifies America to her. She wants to go to New Jersey to see the bakery from Cake Boss. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/78 "2014-06-14T21:39:14Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > The Statue of Liberty has a different function in movies. Showing it in a state of disrepair is indicative that this is post-apocalyptic. “Damn you to hell!” ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/79 "2014-06-15T02:52:39Z")
The Twin Towers…were iconic. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231/80 "2014-06-15T03:18:08Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > “Yank” and “Yankee” are weird words. We - that is to say, members of the tribe itself - have never frequently used “Yank” as a nickname, save for a World War II magazine for service men. (I believe it also printed pin-up photos as well, so maybe the name seemed appropriate.) But it is one of the oldest nicknames for an American, along with “Brother Jonathan”. Brother Jonathan is a new one to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-are-our-iconic-landmarks/690231.md?page=5)