Points of Interest
As you take your iconic journey across America, here are some cool souvenirs to pick up along the way.
Boston, Massachusetts
The Hot Seat
This lone red seat (seat 21 in section 42, row 37) is the very spot where the legendary Ted Williams hit a 502-foot home run on June 9, 1946. It’s still the longest home run in Fenway Park history. But that day, Williams was more interested in a fan than in the game. He thought the man in seat 21 was dozing off, so to teach him a lesson, he sent the ball straight at him, blasting a baseball-sized hole clear through the sleepyhead’s straw hat.
Timeworn
Opened in 1912, Fenway Park is the oldest major league baseball stadium still in use. In 1911, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor was looking for possible locations when his father bought more than 365,000 square feet of land in the Boston neighborhood of Fenway-Kenmore. Taylor called his new stadium Fenway Park. Though he claimed the name was inspired by the location, some suggested the name promoted his family’s company, Fenway Realty–making Taylor perhaps baseball’s first nepo baby.
Top Dog
Fenway’s top hot dog vendors sell up to 300 hot dogs a night. That’s 10 bins weighing 40 pounds apiece in fewer than 9 innings. Known as Fenway Franks, local supplier Kayem has been making its beef hot dogs in Chelsea, Massachusetts, since 1909. The franks are steamed, grilled or rolled, and then wedged inside a classic New England-style bun. Hot dog!
The Fisk Pole
In the early morning hours of October 22, 1975, Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk took a 1-0 fastball from Cincinnati Reds reliever Pat Darcy and banged it off the top of the left field foul pole at Fenway Park. Fisk’s hit ended a 12-inning battle and gave Boston a 7-6 victory in Game Six of the 1975 World Series. Exactly 30 seasons later, in June of 2005, the Sox dedicated the infamous field mark as the “Fisk Pole” in honor of the hard-hitting catcher. Better late than never!
Los Angeles, California
Artfully Done
Famed pop artist Ed Ruscha first drew the Hollywood sign in 1967. Since then, the sign has become one of Ruscha’s greatest muses, echoed in his signature bold typography and his thematic reflections on popular culture and advertising as sources of art. If you want to bring a bit of Ruscha’s Hollywood home, though, better save your money. A 1968 colored print by Ruscha recently sold at auction for $137,500.
A Hollywood First
While 1908’s The Count of Monte Cristo is recognized as the first film completed in Hollywood, it actually wasn’t the first movie made there. That award goes to an obscure 1910 silent film about the Mexican era of California called In Old California. The entire 17-minute movie was shot in and around Los Angeles. There is even a monument at 1713 Vine Street, just north of Hollywood Boulevard, commemorating the film.
Presidential Treatment
The Hollywood sign has almost as much security as POTUS! In order to keep looky-loos away from the sign–especially pranksters –a high-level security system was developed. The Department of Homeland Security even got involved, so I guess you could call it Hollywood Security. The final plan called for razor wire, infrared technology, 24-hour monitoring, motion sensors, alarms, and helicopter patrols.
Trust Fund, Baby!
Believe it or not, The Hollywood Sign has its own trust fund. In 1992, the Hollywood Sign Trust was formed to maintain and promote The Hollywood sign. Most recently, the sign got a shiny new paint job and webcams so visitors can log on to catch the view 24/7.
Benjamin Franklin Slept Here
1707
Born in Boston, MA.
1723
After taking over publishing The New-England Courant from his brother James (who is jailed for contempt charges), Ben skips town for New York.
1723
Ben eventually lands in Philadelphia, where he gains employment as a printer.
1724
Travels to London to buy printing equipment and stays for 2 years, working for 2 printing shops.
1726
Returns to Philadelphia for work as a bookkeeper and shopkeeper.
1751
The snake motif is born when Franklin joked that our colonies might consider repaying the British Crown for shipping their convicts to America by shipping our rattlesnakes around England.
1754
Franklin publishes his famous “Join or Die” image in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. The woodcut depicted the American colonies as segments of a snake.
1759
In February of that year, Ben travels to Scotland, where the University of St Andrews conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws for his writings on electricity.
1771
Touring Ireland, Ben is astounded and moved by the levels of poverty he saw there.
1776
Back in America, Ben heads for Philadelphia to preside over the Constitutional Convention.
1776
He leaves once more for Paris as a member of the Commissioners of Congress, seeking to negotiate a treaty of alliance with the French Court.
1776
Ben is back in Philadelphia, signing a little something known as the Declaration of Independence.
1790
Resting his head for the final time, Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia.
Giddy-Up!
The Origins of the 10-Gallon Hat
Despite what the name suggests, the 10-gallon hat does not hold 10 gallons of liquid. Not even close! Even though historians have many theories for the origin of the name, one strong possibility is found in the term “tan galan” which is Spanish for “so handsome.” What’s more, the word “galan” translates as “braid” in English. Because so many cowboy hats have a narrow leather hatband wrapped around them, cowboy hats are often referred to as “braided hats.” But, most likely, the term may have been literally lost (and found) in translation. Cowboys simply may have overhead Spanish speakers referring to the hats as handsome or braided, mishearing their words as 10 gallons.
The Artist Inside the Hat
Western artist Lon Megargee isn’t exactly a household name, but he should be. In fact, one of Megargee’s illustrations has adorned the satin lining of nearly all Stetson hats made since 1924. Titled “The Last Drop From His Stetson,” the moving image depicts a cowboy offering his horse water from his cowboy hat. You could say that his art has become synonymous with the cowboy Western way of life. The original painting has gone East, however: It now hangs in the Stetson company’s New York office.
Urban Cowboys
Philadelphia’s Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is the vision of Ellis Ferrell, a former bull rider from Tallahassee, Florida. When he moved to Philly in the late 1940s, Ferrell began riding horses on the streets of the city. He soon saw the sport of riding as an opportunity both to teach urban youth the value of horsemanship and to provide them with lessons in mental and moral fortitude. In 1980, Ferrell opened a stable of 5 horses on Master Street, moving the stable to Fletcher Street in 2004. Throughout the years and through many helping hands, he has helped generations of locals build confidence and character.
Like America itself, each part of Lady Liberty has its own story to tell.
The Many Faces of Liberty
The identity behind Liberty’s countenance has long been up for debate. After traveling to Egypt where Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi had hoped to build a “Liberty-like statue” that straddled the Suez Canal, the sculptor was thought to have modeled Liberty’s face after an Egyptian peasant woman. Writer Elizabeth Mitchell alleged that it was a depiction of Bartholdi’s brother Charles, a law student who ended up in an insane asylum. The common consensus, however, is that Lady Liberty is a doppelganger for Bartholdi’s mother, Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi.
Winning by a Nose
In 2010, A copper casting of the tip of the Statue of Liberty’s nose was among a collection of famous memorabilia that was auctioned off in New York City. The 2-foot-long section was one of four castings created to replace the Statue of Liberty’s weather-worn honker. One was used in a historic 80’s nose job, another was destroyed, and the third belongs to a private collector. Who nose where that one is displayed.
Torched
Dawn had barely broken on the morning of July 30, 1916, when, suddenly, the sky exploded with a blinding light. 2 million tons of war materials packed into train cars had blown up in the Black Tom rail yard, in what is now part of Liberty State Park. Windows shattered in lower Manhattan and as far as Jersey City. Shrapnel left pock marks in the Statue of Liberty. The sabotage, later found to be caused by German agents trying to stop American munitions from reaching England, killed 4 and led to a permanent ban on visitors inside Liberty’s torch.
Speaking of Liberty
When Edison introduced the phonograph to the public in 1878, he bragged to newspapers that he was designing a huge record disc for the interior of the Statue of Liberty. Edison had imagined that his invention would allow the statue to deliver speeches that could be heard all over the tip of Manhattan and would even resound across the bay to New Jersey. Thankfully, no one took him up on his offer to “animate” the statue. Can you imagine walking around New York and suddenly hearing Lady Liberty reporting the weather forecast?
Ticked Off
On October 28, 1886, before the Statue’s installation on Liberty Island, parts of Lady Liberty were taken on a colossal parade through Manhattan. When she passed by the New York Stock Exchange, the day traders ran to the upper windows and threw down paper from their Ticker Tape machines. This started what we know today as the Ticker Tape parade. Nowadays, though, confetti is thrown instead of ticker tape. Good thing those guys weren’t trading in gold bars!
(Bad) Luck Be a Lady
Capt. William Kidd supposedly buried his booty under the Statue of Liberty. But be warned, the treasure may be protected by evil spirits. One ghost story says that a century after Kidd’s death, some bounty hunters went to a psychic to locate the treasure. They followed her instructions and began digging, until eventually their shovels struck a chest. As they cleared the dirt away, however, they struck something else: a skull. Suddenly, an apparition rose from the hole and chased the soldiers away. When they later returned, the chest was gone.
Take a “beak”and learn more about our nation’s finest feathered friend
Caught Stealing
Bald eagles are known as kleptoparasites, which means those darn birds have an impulse to steal. While eagles usually don’t go around stealing from their eagle brethren, they will supplement their food intake with food acquired by other birds. This habit gets worse when food is scarce. While scanning their surroundings from their tall perches, eagles keep their eagle eyes on what other birds are snacking on. If, say, a gull catches a fish, a bald eagle is likely to chase the gull until it drops its dinner and lets the eagle feast on the fish instead.
A Pip Before Popping
Hatching is a laborious process for eaglets. Those little ones need lots of rest as they break free from their eggs, taking as long as 2 days in total to emerge. Luckily, the babies have something called an egg tooth that they use to scrape and scratch at the shell to weaken it. When the first crack or hole appears, it’s called a pip.
Best of the Nests
Bald eagles hold the world record for the largest nest ever recorded, not just for a bird but for animals of all kinds. Think Buckingham Palace for eagles! The prize-winning nest in St. Petersburg, Florida, was almost 10 feet in diameter and a whopping 20 feet deep.
Home Renovation
Bald eagles construct their nests to be reused every year. At the beginning of every breeding season, each eagle pair adds new nesting material to their existing nest, which increases its size and depth. The birds call their nests home for up to 30 years. That’s enough time to pay off their mortgage!
There’s a mountain of stories here. Read on and learn more.
Tower to the People
Long before people came to gape, gawk, and cringe at the world’s largest carving of Confederates on horseback, there was another draw to Stone Mountain. In 1838, the park’s first attraction for tourists was installed: a large tower that visitors could climb for $0.50. In the late 1940’s, the tower was destroyed by a storm and never rebuilt.
Sharing the Wealth
During early renovations to Stone Mountain, granite removed from the mountain was sent to buildings all over the world, including the dome of Fort Knox, the locks of the Panama Canal, the foundation of the Lincoln Memorial, and the east steps of the U.S. Capitol. Today, you would be hard pressed to find any state in America that does not have a piece of Stone Mountain granite in one of its buildings.
Keeping Things Plutonic
Stone Mountain is an example of a geologic feature known as a plutonic monadnock. That’s just a fancy way of saying a really, really big rock that was formed underground when lava solidified into a single mass (a “pluton“), and was eventually exposed to the atmosphere after the land (or mountain) above it eroded away. The resulting formation is left as the only giant rock in the surrounding landscape (a “monadnock”).
Seeing Stars
The site of Stone Mountain has been featured in a slew of movies and television shows, including Ozark (REI Boathouse Pier), Stranger Things, (the woods and Cherokee Trail in Stone Mountain Park), and The Vampire Diaries (Main Street in the city of Stone Mountain).
Let’s Cross That Bridge…When we get to it – which is right now!
Touch Up
It is estimated that 5,000–10,000 gallons of paint are used to repaint the Golden Gate Bridge each year.
Go Long!
The six-lane bridge is the equivalent of 30 football fields long.
Heavy lift
The bridge weighs 887,700 tons.
WWW (World Wide Wire)
The bridge’s two main suspension cables use a combined 80,000 miles of wire. Looped around the Earth’s equator in a single strand, they would circle the planet 3 times.
Under the Bridge
More than 500 fish and wildlife species live in the waters below the bridge, including salmon, sharks, oysters, and shrimp, as well as marine mammals like seals, sea lions, and dolphins.
Stay Golden
The U.S. Navy originally wanted the bridge painted with blue and yellow stripes to make it stand out in the fog. When the steel arrived, it was painted with burnt-red colored primer. The consulting architect liked the color, known as international orange, and kept it as is.