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Patriotic places - Travel Views - shrines to patriotic Americans - Brief Article

Robert Meyers

"Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."

Inscribed on the white-marble Tomb of the Unknowns at Virginia's Arlington National Cemetery, these simple words--and the solemn guard-changing ceremony--make a deep and lasting impression on Americans touring their nation's burial ground, a sanctum every citizen should visit at least once in his or her lifetime.

Overlooking the Potomac River, just across from Washington, D.C., the hallowed site contains the remains of four anonymous soldiers--one each from World War I and II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Besides the gravesites of President John F. Kennedy and other famous Americans, rows and rows of identical white headstones sweep across Arlington's wooded hillsides, marking the final resting place of heroes known only to their loved ones.

From Hawaii to the Eastern Seaboard, dozens of shrines (most operated by the National Park Service) appeal to our patriotic impulses. Since the September 11 attacks on our homeland, travelers visit these sites with a new-found appreciation of their freedoms and the courageous men and women who stood up for American ideals.

Every first-timer to Philadelphia feels duty-bound to see the Liberty Bell, a 2,000-pound symbol of freedom with that world-famous crack. One of several attractions in Independence National Historical Park, it is housed in a glass pavilion staffed by rangers. The bell once hung in the belfry of Independence Hall, where it rang out July 8, 1776, to call citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The Statue of Liberty, a colossal figure of a woman striding with uplifted flame at the entrance to New York Harbor, is another symbol of American freedom--and one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Unfortunately, this beacon of opportunity is closed--as of this writing--for security reasons. We hope that ferry boats from Lower Manhattan's Battery Park (and from New Jersey) will soon be able to resume their runs to Liberty and Ellis islands.

In Baltimore's harbor, Fort McHenry National Monument is best known as the home of the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1814, when resistance to a 25-hour bombardment thwarted British occupation. Visitors can view exhibits, roam the ramparts, and see a 15-minute movie; harbor cruises go to the fort in season. A flag ceremony takes place at the beginning and end of the day.

In the Black Hills of western South Dakota, Mount Rushmore National Memorial attracts more than 2.5 million visitors a year. This shrine to American democracy features the huge, chiseledin-granite faces of four visionary presidents--George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. A patriotic program, staged nightly from May through September in the amphitheater, ends with floodlighting of the mountainside sculpture and "The Star Spangled Banner."

Few vacationers leave Honolulu without making a pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor, scene of the most horrific attack on American soil prior to last September. From books or newsreel clips, we all know the images--billowing black smoke enshrouding the USS Arizona and 18 other naval vessels, victims of Japanese bombings on December 7, 1941--"a day that will live in infamy," to use the oft-quoted words of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Commanding a gorgeous setting where calm blue waters belie the tragedy that took place, Hawaii's most visited attraction has museum galleries, a waterfront memorial park, and half-hour movie showing footage of the destruction and events leading up to America's entry into World War II. Pearl Harbor survivors are sometimes on hand to answer questions. A Navy launch takes visitors to the Arizona Memorial, built over the sunken ship, the tomb of 1,178 young men whose names are inscribed on a marble wall.

Of course, there are many shrines to our nation's heroes and history, revered places that make us proud to be Americans. Perhaps the most patriotic act a citizen can perform these days, though, is simply to travel around and support the tourism industry of our great land, from sea to shining sea.

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