3448 UNITED STATES (Maryland) - Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a major dual-span bridge spanning the Chesapeake Bay, and connecting the state's rural Eastern Shore region with the urban Western Shore. The original span, opened in 1952 and with a length of 6.9 km, was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure. The parallel span was added in 1973. The bridge is officially named the Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge after William Preston Lane Jr. who, as the 52nd Governor of Maryland, initiated its construction in the late 1940s.

3444 UNITED STATES (California) - Big Sur Coast Highway

Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It was the first California Scenic Highway and the first federal All American Road. It is generally considered to include the 114 km segment adjoining the region of Big Sur between Malpaso Creek near Carmel Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek near San Simeon in the south.

1333, 3437 CANADA (Ontario) / UNITED STATES (New York) - Niagara Falls

1333

Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, on the border between Canada and the United States, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York, Niagara Falls is in fact an assembly of three waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls (furthest on the postcard 1333) lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls (closest on the postcard 1333) entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island.

3437

The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The boundary line was drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but it has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 50m. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

1397-1400, 3432 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Chicago Skyscrapers

3432 Chicago skyline dominated by John Hancock Center

In the 1770s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established a fur trading post in the area which later became known as Fort Dearborn, along the bank of the Chicago River. In 1837, the settlement had a little more than 3,500 inhabitants and was incorporated as a city. Located near a portage between the Great Lakes and the  Mississippi River watershed, Chicago emerged as an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States, becoming the fastest growing city in the world for several decades. 

1397 Downtown Chicago with Northwestern Train Station,
Presidential Towers and Willis Tower

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the American economy was transformed by the industrial revolution, in which the city of Chicago was its leader, becoming America's second largest city and a leading industrial center. The Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed most buildings within the downtown area, led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era.

1397 Chicago skyline seen from the Chicago River

Moreover, the city gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture, being able to say that the architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in city. Some of these are the so-called "Chicago seven":  James Ingo Freed, Tom Beeby, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, James Nagle, Stanley Tigerman, and Ben Weese. Today, the city's skyline is among the world's tallest and most dense.

1399 Willis Tower

Willis Tower (known also as Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442m skyscraper completed in 1973. It surpassed the World Trade Center towers in New York to become the tallest building in the world, a title held for nearly 25 years. Its innovative design, structurally efficient and economic, inspired by an advertisement for a package of cigarettes, was realised by the architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, who used for the first time bundled tube structure. The tower's observation deck (the Skydeck), located on the 103rd floor, is 412m high and is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Chicago.

1400 Willis Tower and Wacker Drive

Presidential Towers is a series of four nearly identical towers with 49 storeys (141m), each a step back from the leader, and spanning two city blocks. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates and built between 1985 and 1986, it was one of the pioneering residential projects in the River West neighborhood, an area that was once seen as nothing more than a ramshackle collection of old brick warehouses. 333 West Wacker Drive is an office building with a height of 149m, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and completed in 1983. On the side facing the Chicago River, the building features a curved green glass façade, while on the other side the building adheres to the usual rectangular street grid.

0346, 2027, 2227, 2513, 3396, 3412 CANADA (Alberta) / UNITED STATES (Montana) - Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (UNESCO WHS)

3396 Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is the union of the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and the Glacier National Park in the United States. Situated on the border between the two countries and offering outstanding scenery, the park is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features. It has a distinctive climate, physiographic setting, mountain-prairie interface, and tri-ocean hydrographical divide.

2027 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park -
Prince of Wales Hotel on the shore of Waterton Lake

Waterton Lakes National Park was named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton. The park contains 505 km2 of rugged mountains and wilderness, and ranges in elevation from 1,290m at the townsite to 2,910m at Mount Blakiston. Overlooked by the historic Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Lake is composed of two bodies of water, connected by a shallow channel known locally as the Bosporus.

2227 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Crypt Lake

Crypt Lake is a pristine alpine lake occupying a cirque that often has ice into August. Most of the area around the lake is covered in scree and/or snow, and hiking around the circumference of the lake requires approximately 45 minutes. The Crypt Lake Trail is one of the premium hikes in park. Wildlife can be spotted in the mountains towering above including mountain goat and bighorn sheep. The slopes along the Crypt Lake Trail serve as primary bear country. From Crypt Lake it is only a short walk to the edge of Crypt Falls with views over the valley below.

2513 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Cameron Falls

Located in Montana, Glacier National Park includes parts of three sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains (Clark, Lewis, and Livingston Range), with at least 150 named mountain peaks over 2,400 m, over 130 named lakes (from a total of 700), more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. Of the estimated 150 glaciers which existed in the park in the mid-19th century, only 25 active glaciers remained by 2010, and is estimated that all the glaciers may disappear by 2020 if the current climate patterns persist.

0346 UNITED STATES - Glacier National Park -
Clements Mountain

Clements Mountain (2670m), located in the Lewis Range, which stands tall over Logan Pass and above the Hidden Lake Trail. The peak was named after Walter M. Clements who had worked to set up a treaty between the Native American tribe Blackfeet and the U.S. Government for the purchase of tribal lands east of the continental divide which became part of the park.

3412

Today, Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders the park in the east. Like other peaks in Glacier National Park, Clement Mountain exhibits a classic "Matterhorn" shape. Foreground is dominated by a plateau covered with a species of monkey-flowers, perhaps Lewis' monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii), which is native to western North America, from Alaska to California and Colorado.

1773, 3394 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park

1773 Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau

Posted on 24.07.2015, 25.01.2020
Located on the west coast of the island of Hawaii, Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park preserves the site where, up until the early 19th century, Hawaiians who violated the kapu (sacred laws) could avoid certain death by fleeing to this place of refuge. The offender would be absolved by a priest and freed to leave. Defeated warriors and non-combatants could also find refuge here during times of battle. The complex includes also temple platforms, royal fishponds, sledding tracks, and some coastal village sites. For several centuries, the pu'uhonua and adjacent areas formed one of the primary religious and political centers within the traditional district of Kona.

3394 Ki'is which protect Hale o Keawe

The park contains a reconstruction of the Hale O Keawe heiau, which was originally built by a Kona chief named Kanuha in honor of his father King Keawe'īkekahiali'iokamoku. After the death of the king, his bones were entombed within the heiau, which once held the consecrated bones of 23 great chiefs. It was believed that the mana (spiritual power) of the chiefly bones would offer additional protection to an already powerful place. Situated on a point of land near the sea and surrounded by dramatic ki'i (carved images), Hale o Keawe is still considered very sacred ground. The Hawaiian word ki'i may be heard in other parts of Polynesia as tiki.

3379 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Queen Liliuokalani

 

 

If Kamehameha The Great (c. 1758? - 1819) was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Liliuokalani was the last one, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893. Born Lydia Liliu Loloku Walania Kamakaeha on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu, in a high-ranking family, she received a thoroughly modern education, which was augmented by a tour of the Western world.

2079, 3343 UNITED STATES (New York) - Central Park

3343 Horsedrawn carriage by the park

Posted on 29.11.2015, 09.01.2020
Located in middle-upper Manhattan, Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States as well as one of the most filmed locations in the world. Opened in 1857, it was expanded and improved after the plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux until 1873, when it reached its current size. While planting and land form in much of the park appear natural, it was almost entirely landscaped during the 1850s and 1860s. It contains seven lakes and ponds that have been created artificially by damming natural seeps and flows, several wooded sections, in addition to lawns, the "meadows", and many minor grassy areas.

2079 The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

Main attractions of the park include landscapes such as the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink, Central Park Carousel, and the Central Park Zoo; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace; and the Delacorte Theater, which hosts Shakespeare in the Park programs in the summertime. The park also has sports facilities, including the North Meadow Recreation Center, basketball courts, baseball fields, and soccer fields.

3326 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - King Kamehameha The Great

Born in Kohala, Hawaii Island, Kamehameha I (c. 1758? - 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror who united the Hawaiian Islands, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the founder of the Kamehameha Dynasty. In his youth, he accompanied his uncle, King Kalani'opu'u, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, to meet famed English explorer James Cook on his ship the Discovery and fought with him in the 1779 battle during which Cook was killed.

3315 UNITED STATES (California) - San Francisco

Located on the West Coast of the United States at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula, San Francisco includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. There are more than 50 hills within the city limits, and some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated. The nearby San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. Although it is only the 15th-most populous city in the United States with almost 900,000 residents as of 2018, is the second most densely populated large U.S. city.

3309 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Pearl Harbour

Located on the island of Oahu, west of Honolulu, near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan, Pearl Harbor is well known as the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, that finally propelled the United States into WWII. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage 21 American naval vessels, including 8 battleships, and over 300 airplanes. 2,390 Americans died in the attack, and another 1,178 were wounded.

3296 UNITED STATES (New York) - MV John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor

In 1805, an 11 year-old boy from Staten Island named Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school to work full-time on his father's ferry. At 16, he started his own ferry business and in 1838 he took sole control of the main ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan. By the end of the Civil War, he was known as the Commodore, the wealthiest American who had ever lived, controlling 10% of the entire nation's wealth. The Staten Island Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905.

3271 UNITED STATES (Texas) - Alamo Mission in San Antonio - part of San Antonio Missions (UNESCO WHS)

3271 The chapel of the Alamo Mission,
known as the "Shrine of Texas Liberty".

The San Antonio Missions are a group of five frontier mission complexes situated along a stretch of the San Antonio River basin in southern Texas, as well as a ranch located 37 kilometres to the south. It includes architectural and archaeological structures, farmlands (labores), cattle grounds (ranchos), residencies, churches, workshops, kilns, wells, perimeter walls and granaries, as well as water distribution systems. The complexes were built by Franciscan missionaries in the 18^th century and illustrate the Spanish Crown’s efforts to colonize, evangelize and defend the northern frontier of New Spain.