Not to take away from the wonder of the new seven wonders, I have my own list of seven wonders, and they all exist inside the United States.
1. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis was built on the site of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, which is located near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Known as the “Gateway to the West,” the Arch symbolizes the fulfillment of America’s Manifest Destiny, which saw the original thirteen colonies expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean and beyond. The Arch stands 630 feet tall and is 630 feet wide at the base. Construction on the Arch began in 1963, and took two years. The geometric form of the Arch was established by mathematical equations provided by Dr. Hannskarl Bandel. The base of each leg at ground level had an engineering tolerance of one sixty-fourth of an inch, or the two legs would not mate at the top.
2. Hoover Dam, is located along the Colorado River along the Arizona-Nevada border. It was built during the Great Depression — the worst economic period of our nation’s history. Construction began in 1931, and was completed in 1936 — two years ahead of schedule. There were 104 workers who lost their lives during its construction. Hoover Dam contains 4.36 million cubic yards of concrete. It is 1,244 feet wide and 726.4 feet tall — the second highest dam in the U.S. Hoover Dam is 660 feet thick at the base, and tapers to a width of 45 feet at the top. It holds back 28,537,000 acre-feet of water, and its turbines generate 2,080 megawatts of electricity.
3. Like Hoover Dam, the Empire State Building in New York City was built during the Great Depression. Construction began in 1930, and it took 3,400 workers just 410 days to erect what was then the tallest building in the world. The Empire State Building stands 1,453 feet tall, contains 102 stories, and has a total floor area of 2,768,591 square feet. The building contains 6,500 windows, 70 miles of pipe, 470 miles of electrical wire, 73 elevators, and there are 1,860 steps from the ground to the 102nd floor. There are some 20,000 employees who work there (second only to the Pentagon), and the Empire State Building even has its own zip code.
4. Speaking of the Pentagon, that monolith is the perfect symbol of American military power and might. Located in Arlington, Virginia, the Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense. The five-sided structure was begun less than three months before Pearl Harbor, and took 16 months to complete. It is the third largest building in the world by floor area, with more than 6.6 million square feet, and houses 26,000 military and civilian employees. Although it stands just five stories tall (plus two basement floors), the Pentagon contains more than 17 miles of corridors, spreads across 29 acres, and houses more than 100,000 miles of telephone cable. It uses six zip codes.
5. Like Hoover Dam and the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built during the Great Depression. When it opened in 1937, following four years of construction, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and still ranks second, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City being the longest. The Golden Gate Bridge spans 8,981 feet, stands 746 feet tall, contains 1.2 million rivets, and holds six lanes of traffic. One an average day, 100,000 vehicles cross the bridge.
6. The Alaska Pipeline was built during the 1970’s after oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay. It transports oil from that frozen, barren region to the nearest ice-free port, Valdez, which is 799 miles away. Construction of the Alaska Pipeline consumed three years, and at one time required 21,000 employees. Aside from the harsh environment of Alaska’s frozen tundra, the pipe crosses three mountain ranges, many rivers and streams, and the permaf?ost of Alaska required that almost half of the pipeline be built above ground. The four-foot thick pipe has transported over 15 billion barrels of oil since 1977, or an average of more than 1.3 million barrels per day, every day, for thirty years.
7. No company represents the American entrepreneur and the powerful U.S. economy any better than Wal-Mart. Founded by Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1962, Wal-Mart now employs 1.8 million associates worldwide — 1.3 million in the United States. It is the largest private employer in the U.S. and Mexico, and one of the largest in Canada. It operates more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., and more than 2,700 outside the U.S. The company enjoyed $345 billion in sales last year, and donated $245 million to charity in 2005. True to Sam Walton’s vision that “we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better lifestyle,” Wal-Mart saves the average household more than $2,300 per year.
They may not be as old as the new seven wonders, and generally don’t draw the tourists that, say, the Taj Mahal draws, but the American seven wonders are tributes to the greatest society ever to inhabit the planet.
