Structures that Define America, 9-11

Here's the remaining structures that define America on our list, starting with the White House

9. White House

The history of the White House began when President George Washington and city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the site for the presidential residence, now listed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Irish-born architect James Hoban's design was chosen in a competition to find a builder of the "President's House." Construction began in October 1792. Although Washington oversaw the building of the house, he never lived in it. When the White House was completed in 1800, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in as the first residents. Since then, each president has made his own changes and additions. It survived a fire at the hands of the British in 1814 during the War of 1812 and another blaze in the West Wing in 1929 when Herbert Hoover was president. President Harry Truman gutted and renovated the building during his time there. Encompassing approximately 55,000 square feet, the White House has 132 rooms, including 35 bathrooms and 16 family and guest rooms. It is the world's only private residence of a head of state that is open to the public.

10. Lincoln Memorial

"In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever." Beneath these words rests the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Designed by architect Henry Bacon, sculptor Daniel Chester French, and artist Jules Guerin, the monument was completed in 1922 to honor the sixteenth president of the United States. The structure resembles a Greek Doric temple ringed by 36 columns, each representing a state in the Union at
the time of Lincoln's death. Seated within the monument is a sculpture of Lincoln, and inscriptions from both the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address adorn the south and north walls, respectively. The Lincoln Memorial served as the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous, "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963.

11. World Trade Center

A list of some of the nation's iconic structures would be incomplete without mentioning the 110-story Twin Towers and five smaller buildings of the World Trade Center in New York City, which were destroyed by a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The Twin Towers, which were located in lower Manhattan, opened in 1973. Tower One was 1,368 feet tall, and Tower Two was 1,362 feet tall. Of the approximately 50,000 people who worked in the 13.4 million square foot complex, 3,000 died when hijackers slammed two passenger jets into the buildings' upper floors on that fateful day. Construction is underway to rebuild the World Trade Center complex, with an expected completion date in 2012.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen