1. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps, and manuscripts in its collections.
2. Kansas produces enough wheat each year to feed everyone in the world for about two weeks. The state is known as the “Breadbasket of the World.”
3. The geographical center of North America is in a town called Rugby, North Dakota.
4. There’s a town in Washington with treetop bridges made specifically to help squirrels cross the street. It’s called Longview, and the bridges are for preventing squirrels from being hit by vehicles.
5. One of the USA’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, proposed the turkey as the national bird but was overruled in favor of the bald eagle.
6. The United States has no official language at the federal level, although English is the most commonly spoken language, and Spanish is the second most common.
7. The first capital of the United States was not Washington D.C., but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
8. In the late 19th century, the U.S. almost adopted the metric system but ultimately decided against it, making it one of the three countries in the world not using the metric system, along with Myanmar and Liberia.
9. The USA purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, which is less than 2 cents an acre.
10. There is a National Park in American Samoa, making it the only U.S. National Park south of the equator.
11. The tallest mountain in the world, when measured from base to summit, is not Mount Everest but Mauna Kea in Hawaii, most of which is underwater.
12. The Four Corners Monument is the only point in the United States shared by four states: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.
13. The USA’s Interstate Highway System requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
14. The USA has an “official” National March, which is John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
15. The original London Bridge was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it stands today.
16. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world by total area, and they hold about 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.
17. The world’s largest office building by floor area is the Pentagon in Virginia, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.
18. The total length of the U.S. shoreline, including Alaska and Hawaii, is greater than that of any other country.
19. The U.S. government still pays a $1,000 yearly rent for a 99-year lease (since 1903) on Guantanamo Bay to Cuba, but Cuba has only cashed one payment in the last century.
20. The state of Ohio is the only state flag that is not a rectangle; it has a unique swallowtail design.
21. There is a volcano in Yellowstone National Park that is so large and has such potential to change the world’s climate that it is referred to as a “super volcano.” The Yellowstone Caldera is one of the largest active volcanic systems in the world.
