Tower Bridge

In the second half of the nineteenth century increased commercial development in the East End of London led to a requirement for a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge could not be built because it would cut off access to the port facilities situated at that time in the Pool of London, between London Bridge and the Tower of London. A tunnel beneath the Thames, the Tower Subway, was opened in 1870, but it could only accommodate pedestrian traffic.

Construction of the bridge started in 1886 and took 8 years, employing 5 major contractors and 432 construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the river bed to support the construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance.

A computer system was installed in 2000 to control the raising and lowering of the bascules remotely. Unfortunately this has proved less reliable than desired, resulting in the bridge being stuck in the open or closed positions on a number of occasions (most recently 2 June 2005).

Architect: Horace Jones
Location: over the Thames, east of the city,London.
Date: 1886 to 1894
Construction: masonry and steel
Style: Tudorbethan
Type: Bridge

Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is a national institution situated in a prominent location adjacent to The National Mall in Washington, DC however, it is not a constituent institution of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum is dedicated to documenting, studying, and interpreting the history of the Holocaust. It also serves as the United States' official memorial to the millions of European Jews and others killed during the Holocaust under directives of Nazi Germany.

The museum building sits on land that previously belonged to the United States Department of Agriculture. Two of the three annex buildings that sat on this property were demolished to build a museum whose design would be wholly about the Holocaust.

Architect: James Ingo Freed, FAIA, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 1993
Style: Postmodern
Construction: stone cladding
Type: museum

U.S. Pavilion, Montreal Expo

The architect of the geodesic dome was Richard Buckminster Fuller. The building originally formed an enclosed structure of steel and acrylic cells, 76 meters (250 feet) in diameter and 62 meters (200 feet) high. A complex system of shades was used to control the internal temperature.

The architects for the interior exhibition space were from Golden Metak Productions. Visitors had access to four large theme platforms divided into seven levels. The building included a 37-meter-long escalator, the longest ever built at the time.

Architect: R. Buckminster Fuller
Location: Montreal, Canada
Date: 1967
Style: A real high point in '60s Futurism
Construction: transparent acrylic bubble with steel latticework
Type: Pavilion

Supreme Court of the United States

Prior to the establishment of the Federal City, the United States government resided briefly in New York City, New York (where the Supreme Court met for the first time, in the Merchants Exchange Building) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

After the federal government was established in Washington, the court was housed in a small basement room in the United States Capitol. It remained in the Capitol until 1935, with the exception of a period from 1812 to 1817, during which the Court was absent from Washington because of the British invasion of Washington and destruction of the Capitol in the War of 1812.

Architect: Cass Gilbert, FAIA
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 1935
Style: NeoClassical
Construction: Stone (Limestone clad)
Type: Government

The White House

The White House is the official home and principal workplace of the President of the United States of America. Built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style, it has been the executive residence of every U.S. President since John Adams. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British troops, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior walls. Reconstruction began almost immediately and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Due to crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had nearly all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901.

Today, the White House Complex includes the Executive Residence, as well as East and West Wings. The White House is made up of six stories: the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.

Architect: James Hoban
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 1792
Style: Renaissance Revival
Construction: stone, render
Type: House , Government

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in Washington, D.C., it is the largest by shelf space and one of the most important libraries in the world. Its collections include more than 30 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 58 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America, including a Gutenberg Bible over 1 million US Government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning the past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; over 6,000 comic book[3] titles; the world's largest collection of legal materials; films; 4.8 million maps; sheet music; and 2.7 million sound recordings. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress.

The Guinness Book of World Records currently lists the Library of Congress as the "World's Largest Library".

This apparently is based on the shelf space the collection occupies; the Library of Congress states that its collection fills about 530 miles (850 km), while the British Library, reports about 388 miles (625 km) of shelves. The Library of Congress holds about 130 million items with 29 million books against approximately 150 million items with 25 million books for the British Library.

Architect: John L. Smithmeyer, FAIA, and Paul J. Pelz, FAIA
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 1897
Style: NeoClassical
Construction: Stone (Limestone clad)
Type: Government Library

The New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of America's most significant research libraries. It is unusual in that it is composed of a very large circulating public library system combined with a very large non-lending research library system. It is simultaneously one of the largest public library systems in the United States and one of the largest research library systems in the world. It is a privately managed, nonprofit corporation with a public mission, operating with both private and public financing. Its flagship building, on Fifth Ave. running from 40th to 42nd Street in Manhattan, is a National Historic Landmark.
The historian David McCullough has described the New York Public Library as one of the five most important libraries in America, the others being the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and the university libraries of Harvard and Yale.
Although it is called the "New York Public Library" the system does not cover all five boroughs of America's largest city, only Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island. New York City does not have a single public library system but three of them. The other two are the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Borough Public Library, serving the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, respectively. This came about because these three library systems predate the consolidation of New York City in 1898.

Architect: Carrere & Hastings
Location: Fifth Ave., bet. W40 and W42.
Date: 1911
Style: Beaux-Arts
Construction: stone
Type: Library