General Information
The United States consists of 50 states, one federal territory with the capital and seat of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court (District of Columbia), six dependent territories (Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Palmyra Atoll) and ten small islands or reefs.
History
The history of the United States has gone through many points, such as: The Colonial Period, the Origin of the United States and its Expansion, the American Civil War, the Cold War, and other later events.
Quick guide
The most important centers of tourism include cities (New York, Los Angeles). Many tourists visit national parks (Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Redwood, Mammoth Cave, Olympic, Great Smoky Mountains, Glacier, Carlsbad Caves, Rocky Mountains).
However, the most visited natural monument is Niagara Falls, which lies on the border with Canada. Many attractions offer the famous Disneyland theme park.
Near the American city of Keyston in South Dakota is the Mount Rushmore National Monument, a sculpture of four American presidents carved into the rock. It is visited by about two million tourists every year.
Among the unnatural monuments were the Independence Hall building in Philadelphia, where the United States Declaration of Independence was adopted, and the Statue of Liberty, which became not only a symbol of New York, but also of the entire USA.
Other well-known, even iconic, buildings include the Gateway Arch in St. Petersburg. Louis, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Empire State Building and Grand Central Terminal in New York, Lincoln Memorial, White House and Capitol in Washington, Millennium Park in Chicago.
Fun facts
The origin of the term America is known: In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller made a map of the world, on which he marked the countries of the Western Hemisphere "America" in honor of the Italian discoverer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin Americus Vespucius).
He chose Vespucci and not Christopher Columbus, who had sailed to the American shores earlier, because unlike Columbus, Vespucci realized that he was on a new continent, while Columbus thought he had arrived in Asia. Vespucci himself called the new continent the "New World".
