by Eric Benson

Created on: January 27, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

After a recent reading of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" I began thinking of the greatest American feats of engineering and architecture and their place on the list of great tourist attractions. I will present to you a list of tourist attractions made, not by nature, but by the people of Howard Roark's ilk who need to tear down, bull-doze, cut and clear then rebuild not only monuments representing the ambition of the human spirit, but also as an homage to the surrounding natural beauty.

1. The Hoover Dam.

This work of pure, driven human ingenuity may have been surpassed in size and scope since its opening in 1935 but at the time of construction this project's enormity was not only unheard of but thought almost impossible.

All great things are born of necessity and the Hoover Dam is no exception. Not only has the Hoover fed electricity to all the basin states for over 70 years but the lessons learned on this project have been used in dam building the world-over ever since.

2. Mount Rushmore.

I may be a bit biased due to the fact that I was born in the great state of South Dakota but there should be no argument that Mt. Rushmore is one of the most ambitious (or insane) engineering projects undertaken in American history.

Set in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, which would be a wonderful tourist destination unto themselves, Mt. Rushmore awes the traveller as soon as they find Washington's head peeking through the forest canopy and does not relent it's majestic hold over the viewer until it disappears from their rear-view mirror.

3. Las Vegas.

I had a long internal dialogue about listing a whole city as an attraction but when you boil the subject down to it's essence you are only left with the fact that the whole city IS an attraction.

The feat of engineering and designing a city in a desert and selling it as a destination has to be considered one of the greatest human achievements in American history. Say what you will about the seedy underpinnings and operation of the city but architecturally and from an engineering standpoint it is without equal.

4. The Golden Gate Bridge.

There may be longer bridges over larger bodies of water in America but none so captures the essence of it's surroundings quite like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Maybe it's the deep red color, maybe it's the beautiful location, it's difficult to tell, but one thing is for certain, the bridge feels as if it is supposed to be there. This is one of the hardest things to achieve in any engineering or architectural

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