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National Register Of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the USA's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation. As of 2004, the list includes approximately 78,000 entries, including many icons of American culture, history, engineering, and architecture. Administered by the National Park Service, the Register was authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Its goals are to coordinate and help groups such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation identify and protect historic sites in the United States. Occasionally historic sites outside the country but associated with the United States (such as an embassy) are also listed. The Register automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the National Park Service. See List of National Register of Historic Places entries

Process for listing a building, site or district

Any individual can prepare a National Register nomination although historians and historic preservation consultants are often employed for this work. The nomination contains basic information on the type of significance embodied in the building, district, or site:
- Association with a person(s) in history
- Association with historical event(s)
- Architectural significance (design)
- Informational value (primarily archaeology) Information on architectural styles, association with various aspects of social history and commerce, and ownership is part of the nomination. A narrative section describes the site or building in detail and justifies why it is historically significant. The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) receives National Register nominations and supplies feedback to the individual preparing the nomination. Once the SHPO approves the nomination, it is passed to the state's historic preservation advisory board which then approves or denies the nomination. From there the nomination is sent to the National Park Service which then approves or denies the nomination. If approved it is officially entered by the Keeper into the National Register of Historic Places.

Effects of being listed on the National Register

The National Register of Historic Places is primarily a tool to recognize the historical significance of a building, district, or site. With one exception, there are no laws at the state or federal level that affect the ability of a property owner to make changes to the building, including demolition. If federal money or a federal permitting process is involved, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 is invoked which requires an assessment of the impact of an intervention on a historic resource. The process is purely advisory in nature; the end product is a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in which the parties involved agree to a particular plan. An MOA often recommends "document and destroy" in which the historic resource is first documented and then demolished. The National Register does, though, prevent local governments from condemning the property or requiring modifications to it. Many states have laws equivalent to Section 106. As opposed to a National Register Historic District, a local historic district often has enabling ordinances at the municipality level that restrict certain kinds of changes to properties and thereby encourages changes that are sensitive to the historic character of an area.

Bibliography

- National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service; ISBN 0471144037; John Wiley 1994.

External link

- [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/ National Register of Historic Places] Category:Lists of places

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded¹ from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

National Park Service

National Park Service
National Park Service logo
Established:	April 5, 1916
Director:	Fran P. Mainella
Budget:	$1.6 billion (2004)
Employees:	20,000 (2004)

The National Park Service (NPS) is the United States federal agency that manages all National Parks, many National Monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. It was created on August 25, 1916 by an act of Congress in order to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." It is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior, which is in turn an arm of the executive branch. The NPS oversees 388 units, of which 57 are designated national parks. Other units are designated national monuments, historical parks, memorials, historic trails, outdoor recreation areas, wild and scenic rivers, lakeshores, seashores, and battlefields. The U.S. Park Police is a law enforcement division of the National Park Service, with jurisdiction in all NPS sites, primarily utilized in urban sites. The National Park System is a term that describes the physical collection of parks and sites managed by the National Park Service. The system encompasses approximately 83.6 million acres (338,000 km²), of which more than 4.3 million acres (17,000 km²) remain in private ownership. The largest park is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (53,000 km²) it is over 16 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania, at 0.02 of an acre (80 m²). In addition to "units" that the National Park Service either owns or administers, it also provides technical and financial assistance to several "affiliated areas" authorized by Congress. The largest affiliated area is New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve at 1,164,025 acres (4711 km²). The smallest is Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at 0.00 acres.

External links

- [http://www.nps.gov/ National Park Service official site]
- [http://www.nps.gov/legacy/nomenclature.html NPS nomenclature for designating protected sites and areas]
- [http://photo.itc.nps.gov/storage/images/index.html NPS public domain digital image archive]
- [http://www2.nature.nps.gov/views Views of the National Parks]
- [http://www.nationalparksgallery.com National Parks Pictures] Category:United States Department of the Interior

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization which was founded in 1949 to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities. Its mission statement states: :"The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education and advocacy to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our communities." Each year since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation lists 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in an effort to protect America's architectural, cultural, and natural heritage. In recent years this list has included:
- 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY
- Belleview Biltmore Hotel, Belleair, FL
- Camp Security, York County, PA
- Daniel Webster Farm, Franklin, NH
- Eleutherian College, Madison, Ind
- Ennis-Brown House, Los Angeles, Calif
- Finca Vigía: Ernest Hemingway House, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba
- Historic Buildings of Downtown Detroit, Detroit, Mich
- Historic Catholic Churches of Greater Boston, Mass
- King Island, Alaska
- National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), Western States
- “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground” Corridor, VA, MD, PA

National Trust Sites

The National Trust for Historic Preservation operates a fairly small number of sites in its own right, either owning and operating the sites or operating in partnership with other preservation organizations. These sites currently include:
- The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School, Boston, Massachusetts
- Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, Virginia
- Brucemore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Chesterwood, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
- Cliveden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Cooper-Molera Adobe, Monterey, California
- Decatur House, Washington, DC
- Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina
- Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois
- Filoli, Woodside, California
- Gaylord Building, Lockport, Illinois
- Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut
- Kykuit, Tarrytown, New York
- Lincoln Cottage, Washington, DC
- Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, New York
- Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, New York
- James Madison's Montpelier, Montpelier Station, Virginia
- Oatlands, Leesburg, Virginia
- Pope-Leighey House, Alexandria, Virginia
- Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois
- Shadows-on-the-Teche, New Iberia, Louisiana
- Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island
- Woodlawn Plantation, Alexandria, Virginia
- Woodrow Wilson House, Washington, DC
- Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio, Oak Park, Illinois

External link

- [http://www.nationaltrust.org/ National Trust for Historic Preservation] Category:Conservation in the United States United States of America

National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmarks (NHL), are buildings, districts, sites, structures, and objects almost always within the United States and designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they are:
- Sites where events of national historical significance occurred;
- Places where prominent Americans lived or worked;
- Icons of ideals that shaped the nation;
- Outstanding examples of design or construction;
- Places characterizing a way of life; or
- Archeological sites able to yield information. More than half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately-owned. As of 2003, fewer than 2500 historic places bear this national distinction. Working with citizens throughout the nation, the National Historic Landmarks Program draws upon the expertise of National Park Service staff who work to nominate new landmarks and provide assistance to existing landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, also works to preserve, protect and promote National Historic Landmarks. If not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs. Also see: National Natural Landmark, listed building (UK)

List of National Historic Landmarks by state

Following is a partial list of landmarks, with the total number of landmarks for that U.S. state or jurisdiction as of December 2004:

Alabama (35)

- Barton Hall - Colbert County - added 1973
- Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage and Guard House - Birmingham - added 2005
- Bottle Creek (site) - Baldwin County - added 1994
- Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church - Selma - added 1997
- Henry D. Clayton House - Barbour County - added 1976
- J. L. M. Curry House - Talladega County - added 1965
- Dexter Avenue Baptist Church - Montgomery - added 1974
- Episcopal Church of the Nativity - Huntsville - added 1990
- First Confederate Capitol - Montgomery - added 1960
- Fort Apalachicola - Russell County - added 1964
- Fort Mitchell (site) - Russell County - added 1990
- Fort Morgan - Baldwin County - added 1960
- Fort Toulouse (site) - Elmore County - added 1960
- Foster Auditorium - Tuscaloosa - added 2005
- Gaineswood - Demopolis - added 1973
- Government Street Presbyterian Church - Mobile - added 1992
- Ivy Green (Helen Keller birthplace) - Tuscumbia - added 1992
- Kenworthy Hall - Marion - added 2004
- Mobile City Hall - Mobile - added 1973
- Montgomery (snagboat) - Pickensville - added 1989
- Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed - Montgomery - added 1976
- Moundville (site) - Hale County - added 1964
- Neutral Bouyancy Space Simulator - Huntsville - added 1985
- Propulsion and Structural Test Facility - Huntsville - added 1985
- Redstone Test Stand - Huntsville - added 1985
- Saint Andrew's Church - Prarieville - added 1973
- Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand - Huntsville - added 1985
- Saturn V Launch Vehicle - Huntsville - added 1987
- Sloss Furnaces - Birmingham - added 1981
- Swayne Hall, Talladega College - Talladega - added 1974
- Tuskegee Institute - Tuskegee - added 1965
- USS Alabama (battleship) - Mobile
- USS Drum (submarine) - Mobile
- Wilson Dam - Florence - added 1966
- Yuchi Town (site) - Russell County - added 1996
- (eligible) Old Mobile Site - Mobile County
- National Park System units automatically listed in the National Register:
- Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
- Russell Cave National Monument
- Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
- Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site

Alaska (48)

- Church of the Holy Ascension - Unalaska
- Eagle Historic District
- Holy Assumption Orthodox Church - Kenai, Alaska
- Kake Cannery
- Kennecott Mines
- New Russia Site - Yakutat
- Russian American Building #29 - Sitka
- Russian American Magazin - Kodiak
- Russian Bishop's House - Sitka
- Sheldon Jackson School - Sitka
- Skagway Historic District And White Pass
- St. Michael's Cathedral - Sitka, Alaska

Colorado (18)

- Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park
- Cripple Creek Historic District
- Leadville Historic District
- Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel #6 - Burlington
- Pike's Peak - Colorado Springs
- Silverton Historic District
- Telluride Historic District

Connecticut (60)

- Bush-Holley House - Greenwich
- Connecticut Hall, Yale University - New Haven
- Connecticut State Capitol - Hartford
- Hill-Stead Museum - Farmington
- Litchfield Historic District
- Lockwood-Mathews Mansion - Norwalk
- Mark Twain Home - Hartford
- USS Nautilus nuclear submarine - Groton
- New Haven Green Historic District
- Yale Bowl - New Haven

Delaware (11)

- New Castle Courthouse
- New Castle Historic District

Florida (36)

New Castle
- Cape Canaveral Air Force Station - Cocoa
- Ernest Hemingway House - Key West
- Fort Zachary Taylor - Key West
- Tampa Bay Hotel - Tampa
- Villa Vizcaya - Miami
- Ybor City Historic District - Tampa
- Zora Neale Hurston House - Key West

Georgia (46)

- Jekyll Island, Glynn County
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic District, Atlanta
- Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia

Hawai'i (32)

Idaho (10)

- Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1, Butte County

Illinois (81)

Butte County Butte County
- Adler Planetarium, Chicago
- Cahokia Mounds, St. Clair County
- Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company Store, Chicago
- Chicago Board of Trade Building, Chicago
- Columbus Park, Chicago
- Charles G. Dawes House, Evanston
- John Deere Home and Shop, Ogle County
- Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite, Chicago
- Fort Sheridan Historic District, Lake County
- Ulysses S. Grant Home, Galena
- Hull House, Chicago
- Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath, Will County
- Abraham Lincoln Home, Springfield
- Lincoln Tomb, Springfield
- Marshall Field Company Store, Chicago
- Mazon Creek Fossil Beds, Grundy County
- Montgomery Ward Company Complex, Chicago
- Morrow Plots, University of Illinois, Urbana
- Old Kaskaskia Village, La Salle County
- Nauvoo Historic District
- Orchestra Hall, Chicago
- Oscar Stanton De Priest House, Chicago
- Pullman Historic District, Chicago
- Riverside Historic District
- Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago
- Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island
- Sears, Roebuck, and Company, Chicago
- John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago
- Site of the First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Reaction, Chicago
- S.R. Crown Hall at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
- Starved Rock, La Salle County
- U-505 German U-Boat, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
- Old Stone Gate, Chicago Union Stockyards, Chicago
- University of Illinois Observatory, Urbana
- Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Oak Park

Indiana (36)

Oak Park In Auburn:
- Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Facility In Aurora:
- Thomas Gaff House (Hillforest) In Cannelton:
- Cannelton Cotton Mill In Columbus:
- First Baptist Church by Harry Weese
- First Christian Church by Eliel Saarinen
- Irwin Union Bank by Eero Saarinen, with landscape by Dan Kiley; and its addition by Kevin Roche
- Mabel McDowell School by John Carl Warnecke
- Miller House, the Residence of J. Irwin Miller by Eero Saarinen, with landscape by Dan Kiley.
- North Christian Church (congregation founded in 1955), designed by Eero Saarinen in 1964. In Crawfordsville:
- General Lew Wallace Study In Fort Wayne:
- Allen County Court House Allen County Court House In Fountain City:
- Levi Coffin House In Indianapolis:
- Benjamin Harrison Home
- Broad Ripple Park Carousel
- Butler University Fieldhouse
- Indiana World War Memorial Plaza
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- James Whitcomb Riley House
- Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company
- Oldfields Oldfields In Lancaster (Jefferson County)
- Eleutherian College In Logansport:
- Spencer Park Denzel Carousel In Madison:
- Charles Shrewsbury House
- Lanier Mansion In Marion:
- Marie Webster House In New Harmony:
- New Harmony Historic District In Peru:
- Wallace Circus Winter Headquarters In Porter County:
- Joseph Bailly Homestead In South Bend:
- Clement Studebaker House In Spencer County:
- Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home In Terre Haute:
- Eugene V. Debs Home Eugene V. Debs In Tippecanoe County:
- Tippecanoe Battlefield In Vanderburgh County:
- Angel Mounds In Vevay:
- Donald B. (towboat) In Vincennes:
- Grouseland In West Baden Springs:
- West Baden Springs Hotel

Iowa (23)

- Amana Colonies
- Julien Dubuque Bridge
- Dubuque's Shot Tower

Kansas (23)

- Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth County
- Fort Scott, Bourbon County
- Shawnee Mission, Fairway

Kentucky (30)

- Churchill Downs - Louisville
- Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsburg
- Milliken Memorial Community House, near Elkton, Kentucky Image:milliken.jpg

Louisiana (51)

- Acadian House - St. Martinville
- The Cabildo - New Orleans
- George Washington Cable House - New Orleans
- Kate Chopin House - Cloutierville
- The Courthouse & Lawyers' Row - Clinton
- Delta Queen (river steamboat) - New Orleans
- Deluge (firefighting tugboat) - New Orleans
- James H. Dillard Home - New Orleans
- Evergreen Plantation - Wallace
- Fort De La Boulaye - New Orleans
- Fort Jackson - Triumph
- Fort Jesup - Many
- Gallier Hall - New Orleans
- Gallier House - New Orleans
- Garden District - New Orleans
- Hermann-Grima House - New Orleans
- Homeplace Plantation House - Hahnville
- Jackson Square - New Orleans
- USS Kidd (DD-661) - Baton Rouge
- Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - New Orleans
- Los Adaes - Robeline
- Louisiana State Bank Building - New Orleans
- Louisiana State Capitol - Baton Rouge
- Madame John's Legacy - New Orleans
- Madewood Plantation House - Napoleonville
- Magnolia Plantation -

National Register of Historic Places

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See also

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National Historic Landmark

List of National Historic Landmarks by state

Alabama (35)

Alaska (48)

Arizona (39)

Arkansas (16)

California (130)

Colorado (18)

Connecticut (60)

Delaware (11)

Florida (36)

Georgia (46)

Hawai'i (32)

Idaho (10)

Illinois (81)

Indiana (36)

Iowa (23)

Kansas (23)

Kentucky (30)

Louisiana (51)