Historical Insights
The stories that run between the landmarks — each one ending at places you can still go and stand today.
Revolutionary War · Colonial AmericaBoston's Road to Revolution, Street by Street
A market hall, a statehouse balcony, a church steeple and a silversmith's house — the places where Boston argued its way into a war, all within a walk of each other.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Revolutionary WarWashington's War in Four Places: Ticonderoga to Yorktown
Cannon dragged through a New England winter, a desperate January counterstroke, a starving encampment and a surrender on the York River — the Revolution's turning points, and where to stand on them.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Colonial America · Early RepublicThe Founders at Home: Mount Vernon, Monticello and Montpelier
Three Virginia houses where Washington, Jefferson and Madison lived, planned and wrote — and where hundreds of enslaved people made their public lives possible.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Spanish ColonialThe Spanish Frontier: Forts, Palaces and Missions from Florida to California
Long before the English colonies became a nation, Spain had built across the southern edge of what is now the United States. Five landmarks trace that frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Indigenous AmericaBefore Columbus: The Great Cities of Ancient North America
A city of earthen pyramids on the Mississippi, great houses in a desert canyon, villages built into cliffs, and a pueblo still lived in after a thousand years — North America's oldest urban places.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Gilded AgeGilded Age America: The Mansions and the Mills
The Vanderbilts built palaces in Newport and the Blue Ridge; the workers of Lowell and Pullman built the fortunes behind them. Four landmarks show both sides of America's industrial boom.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Gilded AgeThree Openings: New York Harbor, 1883 to 1892
In less than a decade New York Harbor gained a bridge, a statue and an island that would define it — the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Civil RightsLandmarks of the Civil Rights Movement
A high school in Little Rock, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a bridge in Selma and a street in Atlanta — places where the movement for civil rights changed the country.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
The 20th CenturyEngineering the American Century
From twelve seconds aloft on the Outer Banks to a steel arch on the Mississippi, five landmarks record how American engineers remade the twentieth century — and where you can see their work today.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
The 20th Century · The 19th CenturyReading the National Mall: Five Memorials and What They Remember
An obelisk that took almost four decades to build, a temple to Lincoln, a rotunda for Jefferson, a black wall of names and a stone of hope — how the memorials of the Mall were made, and what they ask of visitors.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026