Structures Trivia

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King George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a comfortable family home close to St. James's Palace, where many court functions were held. Buckingham House became known as the "Queen's House," and 14 of George's 15 children were born there. In 1762, work began on remodeling the house to the King's requirements, to designs by Sir William Chambers at a cost of £73,000. Buckingham House later became Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns, in 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to take up residence in Buckingham Palace.

La Ronde has been the largest amusement park in Quebec since 1967. Not many amusement parks of this size can boast a site on an island located so close to downtown. With 35 rides, such as Le Tapis Volant, Le Moulin de la Sorcière, Le Twister, and Le Boomerang, La Ronde attracts more than 1.2 million visitors each year. The site's location works well for The Benson & Hedges International, the world's largest pyromusical competition. The show is exhilarating for visitors seated in the grandstands, since the fireworks are launched on the banks of the river, against downtown Montreal's backdrop of lights.

Large male trumpeter swans may exceed 35 pounds, and the bird is the largest waterfowl species native to North America.

Located at the University of Connecticut, the Roper Center is considered the largest library of public opinion data in the world.

London Bridge in England was first built in 60 AD and lasted until 1014 before it was rebuilt. There have now been 5 versions of London Bridge built on the same site.

London's Millennium Dome, the largest of its kind in the world, is more than one kilometer in circumference and covers more than 80,000 square meters.

There are 284 restrooms along the 17.5 miles of corridors in the Pentagon.

There are 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete in the Hoover Dam. This much concrete would build a monument 100 feet square and 2-1/2 miles high; would rise higher than the Empire State Building (which is 1,250 feet) if placed on an ordinary city block; or would pave a standard highway, 16 feet wide, spanning from San Francisco to New York City.

The largest single U.S. library, the Library of Congress, was established in 1800, and contains more than over 80 million items, including 20 million books and pamphlets. It houses the largest collection of Russian literature outside the Soviet Union.

There are 461 stations in the New York subway.

The beam of light shining from the top of the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada is the most powerful in the world. The equivalent of 40 billion candle power, the beam is visible to airplanes from a distance of 250 miles.

The largest stained-glass window in the world is at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high.

There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.

The beautiful Eilean Donan Castle is situated in Loch Duich near Dornie on the west coast of Scotland near the Isle of Skye. It is the one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, and has been in a number of films, including Highlander (1984) and the nineteenth James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999).

The Las Vegas MGM Grand's 170,000-square-foot casino is larger than the playing field at Yankee Stadium. It contains more than 3,000 gaming machines.

There are more than 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing in the many signs on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.

The big gap between the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center in New York comes from the lack of bedrock near the ground's surface. Skyscrapers are heavy and it is too expensive to drive piles that far into the ground.

The lighthouse at Sand Key, Florida, was the first screwpile lighthouse in the United States.

There are seventy-three elevators in the Empire State Building, including six freight elevators. They operate at speeds from 600 to 1,400 feet per minute.

The Bob's Big Boy Restaurant at 4211 Riverside Drive in Burbank, California, was built in 1949 and as of 2001, was the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy remaining in America. In 1993, the state of California named the restaurant a “state point of historical interest.”