VirtualGlobetrotting: Landmarks

VirtualGlobetrotting Live View

Area 51
nic (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: nic.
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Area 51 is a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base within the Nevada Test and Training Range. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the correct names for the facility are Homey Airport (ICAO: KXTA) and Groom Lake though the Area 51 name has stuck since around the time of the Vietnam War.
The base most likely supports development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems, but its current primary purpose is publicly unknown. Although the base has never been declared a secret base, all research and occurrings in Area 51 are classified as Top Secret Information. The intense secrecy surrounding Area 51 has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories. The area around Area 51, including the small town of Rachel, Nevada, is a popular tourist destination.
Historically, the Groom Lake test facility was established by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for Project Aquatone, which was the development of the Lockheed U-2 aircraft in 1955. Given the the extreme secrecy enveloping the project, the CIA understood that the flight test and pilot training programs could not be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base or Lockheed's Palmdale facility. A search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 was conducted under the same extreme security as the rest of the project. The lakebed of Groom Lake made an ideal strip from which they could test aircraft, and the mountain ranges about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, protected the test site from visitors.
During the Cold War, one of the missions carried out by the United States was the test and evaluation of captured Soviet fighter aircraft and Area 51 played host to an assortment of Soviet-built aircraft. The Lockheed Have Blue prototype stealth fighter first flew at Groom in December 1977 also.
Many of the hypotheses of Area 51's secretive nature concern underground facilities at Groom or at Papoose Lake that include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system, a disappearing airstrip and engineering based on alien technology.

Great Wall of China
UMassIntrepid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: UMassIntrepid.
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Sam Kinison Crash Site
mcgrathk (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: mcgrathk.
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From find a death.com:
On April 10, 1992, Sam was on his way to Laughlin, Nevada, to perform at a sold out concert. He had been married just the week before to a 20 year old woman called Malika. They honeymooned in Hawaii. It was a Friday night when Sam was to perform in Laughlin, and they drove there from Los Angeles. They traveled East on the 40 until they got to the 95, when the route went North. There are conflicting reports as to where exactly the accident happened. One report says 3 miles north of the interchange, another says 4.
Sam was sober. He hadn't had a drink or done drugs in months, and it was a big issue for him. It was about 8:30pm when they were on their way to the show, and apparently Sam saw the pickup truck coming from the other direction. Sam had slowed his car to 15mph, at the time it hit his Trans Am head on. Two kids were in the pickup, which was littered with beer cans, and apparently after hitting Sam, the driver remarked, "God! Look at my truck!"
Sam wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and he hit the windshield with his head. A passerby called for emergency services, and tried giving Sam CPR, with no success.
Immediately after the crash, witnesses say that Sam looked normal enough and he would pull through. He said, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die." Then Sam was heard having some sort of conversation... "But why? 'Okay, okay, okay." The last okay was apparently said very softly and comfortably, like he was talking to someone he loved.
He was taken to the Needles Desert Community Hospital, to the emergency room, and received dead on arrival.
Cause of death - Multiple traumatic injuries. He was 38 years old.
"It occurred to me that there wouldn't be world hunger, if you people would MOVE WHERE THE FOOD IS!!!"

World Trade Center Site
nic (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: nic.

Eiffel Tower
barbusci (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: barbusci.
This is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It's named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" ("Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Although initially criticized by some of the nation's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it's since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world. It was designated a monument historique in 1964, and named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Paris, Banks of the Seine) in 1991.

Pyramids of Giza
TexasAndroid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: TexasAndroid.
The Giza pyramid complex/necropolis in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. They were built during the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, between 2600 & 2500 BCE.
The site is at the edges of the Western Desert, abut nine km W of the Nile River in the city of Giza. It's the northernmost portion of the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 1979.
The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt, and they've historically been seen as emblems of Ancient Egypt. They were popularized in Hellenistic times, when the Great Pyramid was listed as 1 of the 7 Wonders of the World, the only one still in existence today.

Great Sphinx of Giza
TexasAndroid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: TexasAndroid.
The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx. Facing directly west to east, it's on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.
The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks. It is 73 m long from paw to tail, 20 m high from the base to the top of the head and 19 m wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 200s and 900s CE.
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world.

Statue Of Liberty
nic (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: nic.
The Statue of Liberty (French: Statue de la Liberté), officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World (French: la Liberté éclairant le monde), dedicated on October 28, 1886, is a monument commemorating the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, given to the United States by the people of France to represent the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution. It represents a woman wearing a stola, a radiant crown and sandals, trampling a broken chain, carrying a torch in her raised right hand and a tabula ansata, where the date of the Declaration of Independence JULY IV MDCCLXXVI[6] is inscribed, in her left arm. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans traveling by ship. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue[8] and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure. Maurice Koechlin—chief engineer of Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and designer of the Eiffel Tower—engineered the internal structure. The pedestal was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction, and for the adoption of the repoussé technique, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side.

Hollywood Sign

Trinity Atomic Test Site
photog (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: photog.
Location of first nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945 near San Antonio, New Mexico.

Templar Castle
Parabellum (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: Parabellum.
The city is noted for the Castillo de los Templarios, a Templar castle which covers approximately 16,000 square meters. In 1178, Fernando II of Spain donated the city to the Templar order for protecting the pilgrims on the Way of St. James who passed through El Bierzo in their road to Santiago de Compostela.

Mount Rushmore

Colosseum
barbusci (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: barbusci.

Leaning Tower of Pisa
kjfitz (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: kjfitz.
The Tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the Cathedral. Its construction began in the august of 1173 and continued (with two long interruptions) for about two hundred years, in full fidelity to the original project, whose architect is still uncertain.
In the past it was widely believed that the inclination of the Tower was part of the project ever since its beginning, but now we know that it is not so. The Tower was designed to be "vertical" (and even if it did not lean it would still be one of the most remarkable bell towers in Europe), and started to incline during its construction.
Both because of its inclination, and its beauty, from 1173 up to the present the Tower has been the object of very special attention. During its construction efforts were made to halt the incipient inclination through the use of special construction devices; later colums and other damaged parts were substituted in more than one occasion; today, interventions are being carried out within the sub-soil in order to significantly reduce the inclination and to make sure that Tower will have a long life.
In all this story it is possible to find a meaningful constant, the "genetic code" of the Tower: its continual interaction with the soil on which it was built. Today's (1999) works for the safeguard and the conservation of the Tower with very advanced methodologies are designed to fully respect this constant.

Hercule Poirot's Apartment
jbottero (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: jbottero.
Florin Court is an Art Deco residential building, situated on the eastern side of Charterhouse Square in Smithfield, London, England. Built in 1936 by Guy Morgan and Partners, it became Whitehaven Mansions, the fictional residence of Hercule Poirot, in the 1980s filming of the TV series based on Agatha Christie's novels. It features an impressive curved facade, a roof garden and a basement swimming pool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehaven_Mansions

Acropolis of Athens
kjfitz (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: kjfitz.
This is the Acropolis of Athens, the famous citadel overlooking the Greek capital.

Hoover Dam

The Atomium
edv (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: edv.
Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn for the International Exhibition of Brussels, that took place here in 1958, the Atomium is a structure that is half way between sculpture and architecture, symbolising a crystallised molecule of iron by the scale of its atoms, magnified 150 thousand million times.

Southfork Ranch

Fremont Street
Fremont Street is the second most famous street in Las Vegas, Nevada after the Las Vegas Strip. Located in the heart of the downtown casino corridor, it is (or was) the address for many famous casinos such as Binion's Horseshoe, Eldorado Club, Fremont Hotel and Casino, Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, Golden Nugget, The Mint, and the Pioneer Club.
Prior to the construction of the Fremont Street Experience, the western end of Fremont Street was the picture of Las Vegas that was included in virtually every television show and movie that wanted to display the lights of Las Vegas. The abundance of neon earned the street the nickname of Glitter Gulch.
Film and media history
The Golden Nugget and Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel casinos at night.
* The 1987 music video for the song I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2 was filmed on Fremont Street and featured the band members wandering around, while The Edge played an acoustic guitar.
* Honey, I Blew Up the Kid in 1992 featured prominently Fremont Street in the movie.
* In 1994, Glitter Gulch was featured prominently in the TV Miniseries The Stand.
* In the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Steve the Pirate is seen at the Fremont Street Experience - open to vehicular traffic.
* In a 2005 release, Panic! at the Disco released a song about cheap motels on Fremont Street called Build God, Then We'll Talk.
* The 2007 released movie Next, has Nicholas Cage's character entering the Golden Nugget from the Fremont Street Experience.
* Ice Cube's music video for Chrome and Paint took place on Fremont Street, with Ice Cube in a lowrider.
* In the video game, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Logan Keller, and his teammates Jung, and Michael infiltrate Fremont Street to find a news van, which they find by going through the maintenance tunnels under the Stocco Casino.
* Heavily referenced in the Tom Waits song 'Mr. Siegal'.

Noble Brandon Judah Jr. Estate
imkjam (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: imkjam.
This is a local landmark-registered property that was once lived in by the heir to a banking and law fortune.

Abraham Lincoln assassination site
tresverdes (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: tresverdes.
Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at this theater (center, dark roof with the spire on the facade/east side of 10th street, facing west). No doubt the other buildings weren't there yet (fordstheatre.org)

Schwerbelastungskörper
mlc1us (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: mlc1us.
Hitler had a grandiose plan to make Berlin a World Capital. He had planned construction of massive structures in Berlin surpassing those of London, Paris, and Washington and had even decided a new name for Berlin - Welthauptstadt ("World Capital") Germania.
The only structure which was created as a part of his grandiose plan was a huge concrete cylindrical test block called Schwerbelastungskörper ("Heavy Loading Body"). It was built in 1941 to test the load bearing strength of the Berlin soil where the massive Triumphal Arch was to be constructed.

US Capitol Building
Home of the United States Congress and the legislative branch of hte U.S. federal government.

Seattle Space Needle
The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle. Considered an icon of the city, it has been designated a Seattle landmark. Located in Lower Queen Anne, it was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World's Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors.