All of us want to preserve our past and honor our heroes, and America seems to have had a wealth of men and women to memorialize in statues and monuments. Everywhere you look there are commemorative figures, words, buildings, or monuments to the people that we revere. Many of these memorials are major tourist attractions, not to be missed when visiting an area.

          Here is my bucket list of American monuments and memorials.

                    Andrew Jackson Statue* — New Orleans, LA (the equestrian statue of the 7th president in a lovely park known as Jackson Square recalls his victory in the Battle of New Orleans against the British in 1815)

                  Astronaut Memorial* — Cape Canaveral, FL (remembers the astronauts of the US space program who perished during missions)

                    Crazy Horse Memorial — Black Hills, SD (the world’s largest sculpture is being carved to memorialize this great Sioux chieftain)

                    Franklin Court* — Philadelphia, PA (a group of buildings and museums dedicated to the famous American statesman, inventor, newspaper editor, and signer of the Declaration of Independence)

                   Einstein Memorial* — Washington, DC (commemorates the contributions to science of one of the world’s most intelligent men)

                    Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial* — Washington, DC (dedicated to the beloved American president who steered the country through the Great Depression and through World War II)

                    Iwo Jima Memorial (Marine Corps War Memorial)* — Arlington, VA (this sculpture is a replica of the famous photo of US Marines planting a US flag on the island of Iwo Jima in the South Pacific during World War II) 

                   Jefferson Memorial* — Washington, DC (a statue within the rotunda of a grand, circular, Greek-revival building dedicated to America’s 3rd president and writer of the Declaration of Independence)

                    King Kamehameha Statue* — Honolulu, HI (dedicated to Hawaii’s first king, the man who united all the islands in 1810)

                  Lincoln Memorial* — Washington, DC (a seated statue and words of inspiration from one of America’s most beloved presidents)

                   Miami Holocaust Memorial* — Miami Beach, FL (dedicated to the 6 million who lost their lives due to Nazi atrocities during World War II)

                   Mount Rushmore National Memorial* — Black Hills, SD (Giant sculptures of the heads of four of the country’s greatest presidents — Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt — carved into the side of a rocky outcropping)

                   Muir Woods National Monument* — Just north of San Francisco, CA (this pristine grove of Redwoods pays tribute to noted conservationist, John Muir)

                       National September 11 Memorial & Museum (World Trade Center Memorial)* — New York, NY (tower currently being built will immortalize the almost 3,000 people who lost their lives in the single largest disaster in America’s history on 9-11-2001)

                    Oklahoma City National Memorial* — Oklahoma City, OK (recalls the April 19, 1995 explosion in the Federal Building which killed 168 men, women, and children)

                    Statue of Liberty* — Liberty Island, New York, NY (a gift from France to the United States, this well-known statue symbolizes the hopes and dreams of thousands of immigrants who arrived in this country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries)

                    Stone Mountain* — Near Atlanta, GA (Relief carved into a giant stone monolith commemorates the leaders of the Confederacy, Robert E Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson)

                      Tomb of the Unknown Soldier* — Arlington, VA (dedicated to all those warriors who died in wars without ever being identified)

                    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum* — Washington, DC (dedicated to all those who were imprisoned or lost their lives in German concentration camps during World War II)

                   USS Arizona Memorial* — Near Honolulu, HI (dedicated to the sailors who perished in the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941)

                     Vietnam War Memorial* — Washington, DC (dedicated to the almost 60,000 men and women who lost their lives during the conflict in Vietnam)

                   Washington Monument* — Washington, DC (the cornerstone of the National Mall, dedicated to America’s first president and hero of the Revolutionary War)

                   Wright Brothers Memorial* — Kitty Hawk, NC (recognizes the contribution to flight by the two brothers from Ohio who were the first to achieve manned flight)

      Total = 22 (I visited 21 — only Crazy Horse has eluded me to date).