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This suspension bridge turned seventy years old in 2007. Construction of the bridge provided a northern passage into the "City by the Bay," making it the world's longest for just over twenty-five years. Today, the bridge is still the seventh longest in the world and the second longest in the United States. The bridge has withstood storms and earthquakes, closing only three times in its seventy years. Its crossings total almost forty million per year and generate over eighty million dollars in transportation revenue. This gateway bridge is the city's most famous landmark, although the abandoned federal prison on an island in the Bay is a close second.

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The city pictured here is one of the most diverse cities in the world, both in its industries and its people. Its port is one of the busiest in the world, handling almost two hundred billion dollars in trans-Pacific cargo each year. The city is the largest manufacturing center in the United States, but fashion, entertainment, and media production are also very important to the city's economy. Entertainment options vary from art museums to star tours and the city's mild climate makes it perfect for sports-at least eight professional sports teams call this city home. Despite its busy port, manufacturing facilities, and oil fields, the city has a reputation for glitz and glamour. The city has become the world's stage and people come here from all over the world to make their mark and make a name for themselves. If you can see through this tinsel town, you will find that it is a city with a rich culture and a remarkable history.

At the center of the city is Hancock Park, an area where tar from the petroleum rich ground has made its way to the surface and sits in sticky, black pools. Thousands of fossils have been found in the tar, some of them dating back to the last ice age, forty thousand years ago. One of the most common fossils found in the tar is that of a type of saber-toothed cat. Mammoths, a type of prehistoric elephant, wolves, bears, vultures, and condors have also been found fossilized in the tar along with many different reptiles, insects, and plants. Only one human skeleton has ever been found in the tar. The skeleton was from a young, Native American woman who lived approximately nine thousand years ago. Her fractured skull has led some to believe that the woman may have been the victim of the city's first recorded murder.

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The area seen here is quite possibly the most natural place on Earth. This place, in combination with Kluane and Wrangell/St. Elias, is the largest continuous area in the world where roads have not been built. Sheltered from human contact, it is altered only by Mother Nature. Despite the lack of human contact, the landscape changes quickly and dramatically here. The "river of ice" in the picture is a remnant of "The Little Ice Age," which reached its peak around 1750. Massive amounts of snow accumulated and packed together under its own weight, creating a glacier. Over time, gravity pulls the glacier down the face of the mountain toward the bay below. Warmer temperatures and light snow accumulation at the top of the glacier cause the glacier to "retreat," or shrink in size. During times of colder temperatures and heavy snow accumulation, the glacier "advances" and becomes larger. In 1794, a glacier in this area was found that was more than four thousand feet thick, twenty miles wide, and over one hundred miles in length from the St. Elias mountains to the bay.

This area is part of a national park of the same name. It is located in a state in which four percent of the land mass is composed of ice. The park contains sixteen tidewater glaciers-most of which regularly "calve" icebergs into the bay. This happens when a large piece of ice breaks off the glacier and falls in the bay. Some of these icebergs are small, while some of them are very large-large enough to cause damage to ships sailing in the icy waters of the bay.

Today, the area is frequently visited by scientists and nature-lovers. Scientists come to study plants and animals establishing themselves in an essentially new environment as ice melts and reveals the land beneath it. Nature-lovers come to see the unspoiled beauty of the land and the wildlife that makes its home in this place. On land, it is common to find bears, moose, deer, wolves, beaver, otters, and fox. In the sea you will find several species of whales, seals, sea otters, porpoises, and sea lions. It is one of the few places on Earth where humans have not changed the habitat of the local wildlife.

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You are looking at the remains of lost city, built over 550 years ago by an Indian civilization. The city is built high in the mountains of a South American constitutional republic that still counts Quechua, the language of the Indian people who built this site, as one of its two national languages.

This site is in such a remote location that it was 1911 before it was known to the outside world. It is believed to have been empty for almost 500 years, deserted shortly after Spanish conquistadors conquered a nearby city in 1533. Despite its remote location, over 500,000 visitors from all over the world visit this place every year to see its beauty and the amazing craftsmanship of the people who built this city so long ago.

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You are looking at the inside of what was once a grand amphitheatre. It was built in the first century A.D. by an intelligent leader who wanted to give something back to the people, who had endured starvation, disease, and the burning of the city under the reign of the country's most infamous ruler. At the center of the amphitheatre was a wooden floor which was surrounded by many levels of seating, enough to hold up to 50,000 spectators. Although all were welcome, seating was based on class: women and commoners were forced to sit at the top level while dignitaries and upper class citizens took seats in the lowest level, with a view so up-close and personal that it is thought that nets were put up to shield these important citizens from the blood that would often splatter from the "games" below. The games continued for almost 500 years before being outlawed completely. It was then that the amphitheatre began its decline. Marble was removed for use in other building projects, and several earthquakes caused the collapse of a portion of the exterior walls. Today, this colossal wonder is visited by almost 3 million visitors per year.

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The memory of this man is enshrined forever in this marble carving that is 19 feet tall. He is most famously known for his dedication to unity for the divided country which he led and his belief that all men were entitled to the same rights, regardless of race or national origin. Today, he sits in a building modeled after a Greek temple which was dedicated 57 years after his untimely death. From his chair, he has a view of a serene pool of water and a monument dedicated to the "Father of Our Country."

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This lake, its country's "Sacred Sea," is the largest, deepest, and oldest freshwater lake in the world. The lake holds twenty percent of the fresh water found on Earth, an amount approximately equal to the volume of water held in all five of the United States' Great Lakes. More than three hundred rivers and streams flow into the lake and underground hot springs add additional fresh water to the lake bottom and add valuable oxygen to the deepest parts of the lake, bringing to life an area which would otherwise be uninhabitable by most aquatic life forms.

The lake, located in a region of the world's largest country that is famous for its extreme cold, is extremely clear and pure and is home to more than two thousand different species of plants and animals, including the nerpa seal, the world's only freshwater seal. During the winter, temperatures drop to around -30ºF and the entire surface of the lake freezes to a depth of approximately three feet, before the ice begins to melt in April. Strong winds are common year-round on the lake, which is located in a basin and surrounded by mountains. Winds blow over the mountaintops and are channeled into the valleys which carry water into the lake. The winds increase in speed in the valleys as they approach the lake and often blow over the lake at near-hurricane force speeds. Because of the many valleys and rivers surrounding the lake, these strong winds are common during all seasons and blow in many different directions.

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Picture 37

This is one of America's most beautiful states. This state began as a Russian colony after it was discovered by Vitus Bering in 1741. The land was home to many animals, and the Russians began hunting many of the animals for their fur. After only a few years, there were fewer animals to hunt ,and the Russians were not as interested in the land as they had been in the past. In 1867, the United States purchased this land from Russia at a price of just over twelve cents per acre. Many believed that William Seward, the man who had organized the sale, had made a terrible mistake and had wasted over seven million dollars of the United States government's money. The state became known as "Seward's Folly."

In 1880, gold was discovered in the city that would become the state's capital. With the discovery of gold, people began to rethink the idea of this place being "Seward's Folly." People started to pack up their families and belongings to move here in hopes of striking it rich during the gold rush. Not long after the gold rush began, oil was discovered in this state, although the amounts discovered were small until the first major oil discovery in Prudhoe Bay in 1968. Oil is now the state's biggest resource; more than twenty-five percent of the oil produced in the United States comes from this state.

It wasn't until 1959 that the territory became the forty-ninth state. While the land is valuable for the oil that it holds, the natural beauty of the state draws thousands of visitors each year. Because the land is still largely undeveloped, the state's majestic mountains, glaciers, and wildlife, along with the spectacular and mysterious "Northern Lights," create some of the most beautiful scenes on Earth.

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In this island nation, the climate might be what you would call "extreme." Although more than eleven percent of the country's surface is covered in glaciers, the country has more high temperature activity than anywhere else in the world. There is a major volcanic eruption every five years, on average. In addition, more than eight hundred hot springs, steam vents, geysers, and mud pools are found all over the island; as a result almost eighty percent of the country is uninhabitable. While many would find all of this activity alarming, this country has harnessed the power lying beneath its own soil and uses it to meet almost all of its energy needs. Ninety percent of homes in this prosperous country are heated by geothermal energy.

The country frequents the top of economic and environmental rankings, and a 2006 study named it the happiest country in the world. With an unemployment rate around two percent, a high level of education, pollution-free environment, and a life expectancy that is among the highest in the world, there's not much to complain about!