Sitting in the middle of Wall Street diagonally across from the New York Stock Exchange is an old customs house on the site where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789. The building was completed in 1842 in classical revival style by one of the first architecture firms in the city, Read more
Two nuclear power plant disasters from the Cold War live in our collective memory—Chernobyl in 1989 and Three Mile Island in 1979. There was also Fukushima more recently but that wasn’t an issue that rose from human error, quite the contrary, it was an exhibition of human courage when Japanese Read more
Many Swiss and Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania staying in the heartland and planting native wheat and corn for sustenance in the 17th century. They escaped religious persecution in Europe for their Anabaptist beliefs. Pennsylvania became known for thrifty farmers, German beer, and accurate clocks. By the 18th century, there were Read more
The US made 2,710 liberty ships to carry supplies across the Atlantic Ocean during the second world war. It only took 60 days to make one, which helped because they needed to make ships faster than he German U-boats could sink them. This one moored in San Francisco is only Read more
San Francisco made an assortment of boats and ships with styles such as Chinese junk brought over by immigrants. The National Historic Park has over 100 small boats in its collection maintained by traditional craftsmanship. Many of them are fishing vessels. The pier is noted to be an important crossing Read more
The fortress-like prison in Philadelphia have 30-foot walls that go underground. Built in 1830, it was the world’s first purpose-built prison meant to deprive people of freedom as a form of punishment. Jails before this were just holding pens for people waiting for their sentences which might be flogging, hanging, Read more
The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, like many other American patriotic symbols, are not what the traditional national narrative claims it to be. For example, the Star Spangled Banner written at Fort McHenry came from the War of 1812, an expansionist American war of aggression against the British Empire, which they Read more
Philadelphia was the largest city in British North America at the time. Independence Hall was originally built as Pennsylvania’s colonial seat of power with the governor’s office and the courtroom inside the building. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed here. You have to book in advance Read more
Americans don’t have deep historical roots, their approach to history mirrors that of Catholic relics. They encase fragments of flags that flew during major battles in a glass case and show off Lincoln’s paperweights. None of those items have any historical significance apart from being associated with an event or Read more
Human ingenuity led to the industrial revolution but it was powered by coal. Long hours and low pay, coal miners fed the machines in Detroit that built Ford Model T’s on a production line, the locomotives that shipped them all over the world, and cooked the food of the people Read more