Giant Aligator

For many years, Kissimmee's giant gator, in the parking lot next to the Gator Motel, reigned as the World's Largest. Its 126 feet of reptilian eyecandy yanked family vanloads out of the tourist trap river that flowed along Hwy. 192 into Disney. We stayed at the motel, fitfully enjoying the all-night bellows from the adjacent gator pit at Alligatorland Safari Zoo.

The gator pit is still there today, home to 30+ American alligators.

The attraction is now called JungleLand, the giant gator brightly repainted, and augmented with a safari jeep in its jaws, the explorer comically dangling by a rope.